Response to Mitchell and Radford's rethinking research relationships in qualitative research: further thoughts and suggested training strategies.

There is a discrepancy between the ability of qualitative interviewers to elicit disclosures of personal information and the corresponding training of interviewer to respond appropriately to such disclosures, and it is proposed that high levels of disclosure may be attributable to the nature and duration of the qualitative research relationship.

Abstract

This paper expands an important discussion initiated in an earlier publication of this journal (Mitchell & Radford, 1996). These authors point to a discrepancy between the ability of qualitative interviewers to elicit disclosures of personal information and the corresponding training of interviewers to respond appropriately to such disclosures. They suggest that high levels of disclosure may be attributable to the nature and duration of the qualitative research relationship. We propose that additional factors may be at play including, for example, the fact that research participants are sometimes paid for their participation. Based on our experience, we suggest strategies for training qualitative researchers.