I have been involved in a number of projects of late that have used pre-interviews with participants, prior to arranging a full-length 60–90-minute depth interviews. These have been arranged in studies that have explored very sensitive subjects, including experiences of baby loss, suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.

Key uses of pre-interviews:

Screening of participants: Pre-interviews are often used as a pragmatic way to check that participants are a good fit for the study and help with sampling.

They can also help participants assess their own readiness to talk in depth about a potentially difficult subject emotionally. I don’t know about you, but I have personally had the experience of volunteering to participate in an interview on a subject that resonated deeply with me, only to find myself backing out on the day of the interview. I hadn’t given enough thought about what it would be like for me to delve into. I just didn’t feel able to go there at that moment in time.

You can use the pre-interview to check with participants how close or distant they feel to their experience. Ask them how they think they might feel going into details about certain subjects and how they are likely to cope following interview.

Participant Preparation: To give participants a clear idea of the topics that may come up in interviews, including any that could be potentially emotionally distressing. The intention is to give participants some time to think, in advance of the full interview, about what they might feel comfortable, or not, talking about at that moment in time. You can invite them to let them know if there are any questions they would prefer not to respond to, assuring them they have control over the direction of the interview.

Rapport Building: Pre-interview engagement can help establish trust and a comfortable environment, crucial for deep, qualitative data collection.

Questions I am still pondering about the use of pre-interviews:

Do pre-interviews create an additional burden for participants? One interview is a lot! How best to design the pre-interview and full interview stages to ensure participants are not required to repeat disclosures about traumatic experiences?