Analysis of Participant Reactivity in Dyads Performing a Videotaped Conflict-Management Task

Abstract EN

Videotaping is used frequently in nursing research.

A threat to the validity of videotaping is participant reactivity, that is, being recorded by a camera may influence the behavior of interest.

This paper's purpose is to report how youth ages 10 to 14 years old and their parent viewed participation in a videotaped conflict-management task.

Five dyads, who were part of a randomized clinical trial testing an intervention to promote parent-child communication, participated in a structured interview.

All parents were mothers.

Youth were eighth graders.

Three were boys and two were girls.

Findings indicated that (a) dyads felt that the videotaped interaction had a progression of feeling unnatural in the beginning to feeling natural toward the end, (b) dyads found it relatively easy to choose a topic of discussion, and (c) dyads felt that the discussions were meaningful.

Based on these data, recommendations for researchers to reduce participant reactivity are provided.