Cannabis and smoking research: interviewing young people in self-selected friendship pairs

This paper will discuss the use of paired interviewing as the main method of generating data in a study exploring the social context of young people's smoking and cannabis use. The research, conducted as part of an on-going PhD, involved 59 participants of both genders, aged 13-15 from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and with a wide range of cigarette and cannabis use experience. Participants were offered the choice of an individual interview or a paired interview with a friend of their choice, most opting for the paired format. The paper will discuss many of the methodological and ethical features of this method. In particular, it will discuss the potential for paired interviewing to access accounts generated within close friendship bonds, making this method distinctive from larger focus groups. It will also explore how paired interviewing facilitates access to interactions between participants, shedding light on many aspects of young people's social relationships and allowing occasional glimpses into more private territory. It will argue that the paired interview method can make a novel and distinctive contribution to health education/promotion research, policy and practice, and to any research that aims more fully to understand aspects of young people's social worlds.