Recruiting and engaging with people in deprived locales: Interviewing families about their eating patterns

Abstract

This paper discusses substantive personal and practical challenges which emerged during PhD research in which the first author interviewed low-income families about their dietary patterns. This research is informed by national and international concern about poor dietary habits, growing obesity rates (World Health Organisation, 2006), and relatively ineffective healthy eating campaigns (e.g. NHS five a day, 2004; Change for Life, 2008), particularly in relation to lower socio-economic groups (Billson, Pryer & Nichols, 1999). We anticipated some challenges undertaking this study and are now in a position to reflect on our participant recruitment and data collection. In particular, it is evident that some of our broadly held assumptions about participants were misplaced; in consenting to be involved in the research, we supposed that participants would be interested in the study and reasonably accommodating. This was not always the case. Reflecting on this disjuncture has sensitised us further to the importance of the research context and the relationship between participants and researcher. In this paper, we reflect on the ways in which our participants engaged with the research process and how this was experienced from the researchers’ perspective.