A Sport Research Teams’ Reflections on Conducting Emotionally Demanding Research with the Bereaved.

This paper explores the experiences of a sport research team (n = 6) who attended a conference with and then interviewed relatives of athletes whose deaths were linked to traumatic brain injuries through playing sport. Afterwards the research team were interviewed to explore the effects of undertaking such emotionally demanding research. Several researcher team members (n = 3) also later conducted online interviews with bereaved relatives who had not attended the conference. These researchers were re-interviewed to explore how their online experience was different to conducting in-person interviews. Interviews with the research team took place with a colleague known to the researchers but not involved in data collection at the conference. Reflexive thematic analysis led to the development of five themes: (1) ‘Wow! I don’t know if we’re ready for this’, (2) the emotional struggle, (3) a vulnerable team, (4) learning how to take self-care, (5) less emotion but also less connection. Findings suggest that preparing for bereavement interviews is challenging, that the research team were collectively vulnerable, and that learning to take self-care was important. Online data collection was found to reduce researcher vulnerability but raised different challenges. Findings are discussed in relation to the challenges of preparing for sensitive interviews, the pros and cons associated with deeply connecting with participants, the importance of self-care and support for researchers, and the implications of conducting interviews online without having developed pre-established relationships with participants.