Trust As a Component Of Ethical Community Based Participatory Research

• In Event: 088 - Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Participatory Research

Abstract

This paper introduces trust as an important component of research ethics in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). By using interview data collected from academic and community investigators working on CBPR projects, we (1) illustrate the dimensions of trust in the context of conducting ethical CBPR; (2) explain how trust may be built, stressing the importance of studying trust as a process; and (3) develop a model of trust as a component of ethical CBPR, which is an important first step towards a comprehensive analysis of trust-building in partnered health research. In particular, we explain the importance of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions of trust in the context of ethical CBPR. We argue that adopting a process approach to the analysis of trust is particularly appropriate because public health and CBPR ethics are dynamic and reflexive in nature and because researcher-study participant relationships are being negotiated in each research encounter. Focusing on partnered research not only helps better understand research-study participant relationships, but also expands the focus of trust relationships to include the relationships between academic and community investigators. Therefore, our analyses of the process of building trust as a component of ethical partnered research distinguishes between trust in research-related decisions and interpersonal relationships.

Authors

• Dmitry Khodyakov, RAND Corporation

• Elizabeth Bromley, University of California-Los Angeles

• Lisa Mikesell, State University of New Jersey-Rutgers