Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries (January 11 - 14, 2007)

Purposes: To examine research collaboration within a group of researchers (staff and investigators) of an NIMH-funded behavioral HIV prevention intervention for severely mentally ill patients in a psychiatric hospital in Rio de Janeiro City, Brazil. This study emphasizes the perspective of collaborators in Brazil where the intervention was developed and implemented.

Methods: Sample consists of 20, randomly selected co-investigators and mental health providers (social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists) taken from the project's salaried staff in the U.S. (four) and Brazil (sixteen). Eight participants were drawn from a pool of 14 senior investigators of the study (four from each country). Twelve participants were drawn from the 20 Brazilian providers who developed and implemented the intervention in Brazil. A mixed methods approach of data collection was used. It consisted of a semi-structured qualitative interview (audio recorded, lasting about 30 minutes) and survey questions about the elements of the research process that participants found most and least helpful in developing and implementing the intervention. Using a theoretical model of participatory developmental research (Coughlan & Collins, 2001), the interview covered four domains of the research process: 1) Entry and Analysis; 2) Design; 3) Development; and 4) Collaborative Evaluation. Each of these domains comprises a series of specific tasks and processes that each party to the collaboration undertook.

Results: Ages ranged from 25 to 49. Eleven respondents were female and 9 male; all had at least a college degree. Qualitative data revealed that participants had to overcome language barriers and issues of both mistrust and suspicion between American and Brazilian collaborators, especially in the initial phases of collaboration. However, through consensus building and group work, these issues were resolved over the five-year life of the project. Co-investigators reported specific tasks (e.g., study design and data analysis) and skills (e.g., leadership, language) that characterized their involvement in the Entry and Analysis and Design phases of the collaboration. Mental health providers, on the other hand, reported more intense involvement in the Development phase. Providers highlighted clinical experience and facilitation of the intervention as the major skills/tasks that they brought to the project. Survey data showed that most phases of the research process were implemented collaboratively and that the collaboration followed basic principles of participatory research.

Implications: Given the global scope of the HIV epidemic, U.S.-based researchers need to forge relationships with investigators and providers abroad to work on HIV prevention research. This study identified important modifiable elements of international research collaboration that may help enhance the development and implementation of HIV prevention abroad. In order to establish research collaborations abroad, researchers will need to overcome language barriers and issues of mistrust and suspicion by building a consensus among all those involved in the project. Researchers need to identify their collaborators' specific skills, so that they may distribute tasks to suit the needs of each phase of the research process.