Researcher Social and Emotional Wellbeing: A Qualitative Exploration of Workplace Supports and Self-Care Strategies While Engaging in Sensitive-Topic Research

Research into health and social behaviours is essential for understanding the human experience and addressing society’s more complex problems, but can impact researcher wellbeing. This study explored researchers’ experiences of workplace support and their self-care strategies when undertaking sensitive topic research. In-depth interviews with 42 Australian researchers across 13 universities and research organisations were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Two overarching themes identified in the data will be discussed in this article: Researchers are being failed and An isolated fight for survival. The first theme indicated that most researchers undertaking sensitive-topic research face a challenging workplace culture, extensive barriers to accessing support, and leadership and organisational inattention to shared responsibility for researcher wellbeing. Researchers also tended to experience what we have termed an isolated fight for survival, where attempts to replace system failures involve some researchers’ use of disconnection and coping mechanisms alongside self-initiated physical and self-care activities. We contend that universities and research organisations, ethics committees, faculties, schools and managers/supervisors could play a more prominent and effective role in supporting researcher wellbeing.