‘It's a Sensitive Topic for Me, But I Want to Tell You’: Ethical and Trauma-Informed Issues of Conducting Interviews with Young Ukrainian Refugees
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This study examines the ethical and methodological complexities of conducting qualitative research with forcibly displaced Ukrainian youth during an ongoing war. Through two waves of semi-structured interviews (2023–2024) with 20 young refugees in Germany and Australia, it draws on Park's integrated meaning-making model to explore how trauma, displacement, and disrupted meaning systems shape both participant experience and the research encounter. A qualitative-dominant mixed-methods design combined standardized trauma assessment with narrative interviews. Findings reveal meaning-making as a non-linear, cyclical process in which vulnerability and resilience coexist. Notably, many participants described the interview itself as an opportunity for cognitive integration and narrative reclamation. The study also reflects on the researcher's own experience as a Ukrainian academic, documenting secondary trauma, compassion fatigue, and the ethical tensions of insider positionality. It calls for relational, reflexive ethical frameworks that protect both participants and researchers in active conflict settings.
Article Details
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who submit articles to this journal from 31st March 2014 for publication, agree to the following terms:
a) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share and adapt the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
b) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
c) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Open Access Citation Advantage Service). Where authors include such a work in an institutional repository or on their website (ie. a copy of a work which has been published in a UTS ePRESS journal, or a pre-print or post-print version of that work), we request that they include a statement that acknowledges the UTS ePRESS publication including the name of the journal, the volume number and a web-link to the journal item.
d) Authors should be aware that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License permits readers to share (copy and redistribute the work in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the work) for any purpose, even commercially, provided they also give appropriate credit to the work, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do these things in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests you or your publisher endorses their use.
For Volume 5 No 3 (2013) and before, the following copyright applied:
Authors submitting articles to UTSePress publications agree to assign a limited license to UTSePress if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication. This license allows UTSePress to publish a manuscript in a given issue. Articles published by UTSePress are protected by copyright which is retained by the authors who assert their moral rights. Authors control translation and reproduction rights to their works published by UTSePress. UTSePress publications are copyright and all rights are reserved worldwide. Downloads of specific portions of them are permitted for personal use only, not for commercial use or resale. Permissions to reprint or use any materials should be directed to UTSePress.