Characteristics of adolescents who provide neither parental consent nor refusal for participation in school-based survey research

Schools offer a convenient setting for research on adolescents. However, obtaining active written parental consent is difficult. In a 6th-grade smoking study, students were recruited with two consent procedures: active consent (parents must provide written consent for their children to participate) and implied consent (children may participate unless their parents provide written refusal). Of 4,427 invited students, 3,358 (76%) provided active parental consent, 420 (9%) provided active parental refusal, and 649 (15%) provided implied consent (parental nonresponse). The implied consent procedure recruited more boys, African Americans, students with poor grades, and smokers. This dual-consent procedure is useful for collecting some limited data from students who do not provide active consent or refusal.     

The impact of child obesity on active parental consent in school-based survey research on healthy eating and physical activity

Previous studies have shown that active consent procedures result in sampling bias in surveys dealing with adolescent risk behaviors such as cigarette smoking and illicit drug use. To examine sampling bias from active consent procedures when the survey topic pertains to childhood obesity and associated health behaviors, the authors pair data obtained from both active and passive consent procedures. The authors find that parents of children who are overweight or at risk for being overweight are significantly less likely to give active consent. In addition, parents of children enrolled in lower grades are more reluctant to consent to participate.     

Recruitment and consent of adults with intellectual disabilities in a classic grounded theory research study: ethical and methodological considerations

Researchers are required to provide opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to be included in research which affects their lives. This paper reports on one research study inclusive of 12 adults with intellectual disabilities. Ethical and methodological realities of recruiting research participants and obtaining informed consent while enlisting a classic grounded theory methodology are discussed. The findings of this paper focus on building and maintaining trusting relationships with relevant gatekeepers and engaging in reasonable accommodations to support decision-making for and with adults with intellectual disabilities. This paper contributes to an understanding of how to apply for ethical approval, negotiate access to potential participants, enlist reasonable accommodations and obtain informed consent in the context of the methodological strictures of classic grounded theory methodology. Research projects need to be carefully planned making space for the development of empathic relationships with both the potential participants and also with the structures and services supports.     

The impact of a written parental consent policy on estimates from a school-based drug use survey

The authors examine differences between mean, variance, and correlation parameter estimates derived from a full school-based sample and subsamples restricted by the provision of parental consent. A total of 1,607 students at 21 continuation high schools and 1,192 students at 3 traditional high schools completed a survey containing variables related to sociodemographics, drug use, mental health, and violence. The employment of a researcher-initiated home-telephone-call procedure substantially increased the parental response rate over a student-/school-assisted consent method. The subsamples restricted by the written consent criterion showed some small biases in estimates of sociodemographic variables but little or no biases on measures related to mental health, drug use, or violence measures. The augmentation of the written consent samples with verbally consented students reduced observed biases.     

Differential attrition rates and active parental consent.

Active parental consent in survey research poses ethical and practical concerns. One common argument against the requirement of active consent procedures is its effect on participation rates. There is additional concern that higher risk groups may be underrepresented in the final sample. Empirical support of differential attrition, however, is lacking. In the current multisite longitudinal study, passive consent procedures were approved for the collection of pretest data. For subsequent years of data collection, active parental consent procedures were required. In this article, we use the pretest data to examine demographic, attitudinal, and behavioral differences between those students for whom active consent was provided and those for whom active consent was either denied or for whom no response was received. The results indicate that active consent procedures produce deleterious effects on participation rates and lead to an underrepresentation of at-risk youth in the sample.     

The ugly scholar: Neocolonialism and ethical issues in international research

As a discipline, sociology has had to confront criticism of the nature and ends of sociological research and ethnical dilemmas in the study of social problems and people. Over time guidelines have appeared to aid in protecting subjects and colleagues (e.g., the ASA Code of Ethics) and to guarantee research standards (e.g., the peer-reviewed proposal process, human subjects committees). However, guidelines tend not to address the challenges sociologists face in international research. This results in unpleasant experiences and potentially endangers research and researcher alike. This articles responds to the gap in the literature on ethical issues in international research. It draws on writings by social scientists and from the author’s experience in Latin America.     

Conducting research on violence in Asian American communities: methodological issues

Conducting culturally competent research is a challenge as the United States becomes increasingly multicultural. When conducting research on violence in Asian American communities, researchers need to consider how culture, race, and ethnicity influence definitions of concepts, and methodological issues such as research designs, sampling, developing and translating instruments, ethical issues, recruiting research participants, supervising and training interviewers, and disseminating findings. Examples from the authors' research studies on community violence in the Khmer community, domestic violence in the Chinese American community, and dating violence in Asian American groups are extrapolated to highlight various themes. A commitment to a research program that collaborates with the community under study and cultural experts is vital at every stage of the research process.     

Conducting research using web-based questionnaires: Practical,methodological, and ethical considerations

The use of the internet for social science research is becoming increasingly common. This paper outlines practical, methodological and ethical issues for researchers to consider when using web-based questionnaires. This is illustrated by consideration of the authors' own experience of conducting a study into the phenomenon of self-harm.     

Unanticipated ethical issues in a participatory research project with individuals with intellectual disability

The conduct of a participatory research investigation into the everyday literacy of adults with intellectual disability within the context of a PhD thesis highlighted issues related to the ethics of participatory research and the need to revisit and reconsider ethical guidelines around working with individuals with intellectual disability. Tensions were identified between participatory research ideology and the reality of research experiences, with additional issues arising due to disability in the first author.     

Conceptual and methodological issues in evaluating emergent programs

This paper identifies and discusses conceptual and methodological issues related to five attributes of emergent programs that frequently apply across the spectrum of human services: undefined client populations, inadequate causal evidence relating inputs to outcomes, shifting objectives, identification of criteria for standardizing treatments, and temporal constraints on program development. A case study of the American Red Cross nutrition program is used to illuminate the evaluation problems associated with these issues to mitigate them. Strategies found to be useful in the evaluation of emergent programs include the examination of the relationship among observed client characteristics and needs, external reviews of objectives, identification of client preconditions that support or inhibit performance, examination of normal treatment variation, and a multi-stage process.     

Young adults and parental divorce: exploring important issues.

This article discusses the potential impact of parental divorce on the lives of young adult offspring. Parental divorce may upset both social and psychological aspects of the transition to adulthood process. The family roles young adults are expected to assume could be altered by the break-up, as could opportunities for particular young adult pursuits, such as advanced education. Heightened adjustment problems also are likely to result, as divorce produces additional life changes during the highly transitional period of early adulthood. Qualitative data from an exploratory study of 39 college students, ages 18-23, illustrate many of the relevant issues. Suggestions for future research are provided.     

Children in self-care: An examination of research confounds

Families using self-care, in-home, and out-of-home child care arrangements were compared on a number of demographic variables. Certain variables (e.g., family income; marital status) were, as expected, related to the type of child care in use. However, one unexpected trend also was identified: regardless of the type of child care arrangement reported by parents, as the age of children increased across the out-of-home, in-home, and self-care family groups so too did the number of hours children spent at home alone. This trend is discussed in relation to two confounding areas of which researchers should be aware when conducting school-age child care needs assessment surveys and conducting self-care studies: (a) the context within which the self-care decision is made; and (b) the reasoning that goes into making the self-care decision.     

An examination of spouse abuse: Practice issues for the profession

This paper reviews the substantial problem of spouse abuse. Initially, the scope of the problem is reviewed. Who the victim is, why she stays, who the batterer is, the relationship between violence and alcohol, and other victims of abuse are covered in detail. A clinical paradigm for helping clients is elucidated. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the phenomenon for the profession.     

An evaluation of prototype school-based peer counseling program.

This study reports short-term outcome evaluation results of a school-based peer counseling (PRC) program as implemented by North Forsyth High School during January 1990-February 1991. The PRC program is evaluated in terms of: 1) the content of the program as evaluated by the PRC trainees; 2) the quality of the PRC instructor as perceived by these trainees; 3) several instrumental objectives deduced from the PRC training program; and 4) the degree to which the program was able to reach other students at North Forsyth during the time the PRC was in operation. In the absence of a control group, the treatment effect of the program is determined in terms of individual growth curve models. Through the multiple evaluation designs employed in this research, it has been learned that a significantly larger proportion of students in the PRC group had more favorable attitude toward the content of the PRC program when compared to the content of what they learned from their regular school curricula. Furthermore, a significantly larger proportion of students in the PRC program reported more favorable attitude toward their instructor than their regular school teachers. The PRC program was able to elicit an improvement of trainee self-esteem (p less than .01) and their social values (p less than .05) between pre and post of the Peer Training Evaluation Instrument. In terms of client access, 18.4 percent of the totality of potential clients at North Forsyth have been reached through sixty-one peer counselors sanctioned by the school.     

Community mobilization, organizing, and media advocacy. A discussion of methodological issues

Community Mobilization refers to those activities that prepare communities to accept, receive, and support prevention interventions designed to reduce alcohol-involved trauma. Media advocacy refers to the strategic use of media by those seeking to advance a social or public policy initiative. Within the Community Prevention Trial, both of these activities were critical elements. This article presents the evaluation design for community mobilization and media advocacy implemented for the project. Here the authors argue for the need to include both structured and unstructured community monitoring instruments, coding of local alcohol-related news coverage, and surveying community members about the exposure to alcohol-related problems, and support for project interventions. This article also presents an audience segmentation analysis and discusses the implications of this analysis for media advocacy efforts.     

The status of women: Conceptual and methodological issues in demographic studies

This paper explores several conceptual problems in social demographic studies of the status of women, including failure to recognize the multidimensionality of women's status and its variation across social locations, the confounding of gender and class stratification systems, and the confounding of access to resources with their control. Also discussed are some generic problems in the measurement of female status, such as the sensitivity of particular indicators to social context, and the need to select consistent comparisons when judging the extent of gender inequality.