Obtaining active parental consent for school‐based research: a guide for researchers
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public HealthPublished 1 June 2009Open access
Luke Wolfenden, Kypros Kypri, Megan Freund, Rebecca K Hodder
Citations71
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TL;DR
This work sought to identify effective strategies for the recruitment of child research participants through schools through schools to obtain active parental consent for students to participate in health research.
Abstract
Application of these strategies should reduce the risk of non-response and other biases that result from selective non-participation. Further randomised controlled trials of these and other strategies are required to strengthen the evidence base.
Keywords
PsychologyMedicine
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Health researchers must understand the methodological, legal, and ethical issues related to parental consent to produce high-quality, valid research about adolescents and to provide evidence for laws, policies, and regulations.
Evaluation ReviewDo Participation Rates Change when Active Consent Procedures Replace Passive Consent
128 Citations2001Steven B. Pokorny, Leonard A. Jason +3 more
Changing from passive to active parental consent procedures was examined in a case study with an anonymous survey of sixth- through eighth-grade students' substance use and results suggest that certain types of consent procedures can yield high levels of participation.
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The authors describe active consent procedures that produced an overall active consent rate of 79% in a sample of more than 4,500 middle school students attending 29 schools in seven cities across the United States.
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109 Citations1993Clyde W. Dent, Jon Galaif +4 more
Those students whose parents failed to respond to the consent procedure were less likely to live with both parents, were more likely to be latch-key children, placed a lower priority on health, and were higher in risk-taking, lower in self-esteem, and lower in assertiveness than those whose parents had responded.
Evaluation ReviewNo News is Bad News
78 Citations2004Jennifer B. Unger, Peggy Gallaher +5 more
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Obtaining written permission from parents for young adolescents to participate in school-based health surveys is possible in urban settings and has potential benefits in terms of community awareness and involvement in research and evaluation studies.
Evaluation ReviewFactors Influencing Middle and High Schools’ Active Parental Consent Return Rates
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Although peer incentives appeared effective in encouraging some students to return parent consent or refusal forms, the desire to be protected may have been a stronger motivator.
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Future school-based immunization initiatives can utilize these data to incorporate the most effective school-level factors into their programs to maximize the number of students immunized.
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Progressively refined recruitment strategies and specific attention to the target audience of middle school girls resulted in overall study recruitment rates of 80%, 85%, and 89%, for the baseline, posttest, and follow-up period, respectively.
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Comparing two methods for obtaining active parental consent: return of consent forms in the mail versus return by students to their classrooms suggests that the student-delivered method is more successful at producing higher rates of consent form return and agreement to participate in the study, after controlling for school-level characteristics.
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Overall return rates and rates of consent for screening participation were substantially higher when the consent form and accompanying materials were provided directly to parents rather than distributed in the classroom and sent home with students.
American Journal of EvaluationObtaining Active Parental Consent for Evaluation Research: A Case Study
26 Citations1999Knowlton Johnson, Denise Bryant +5 more
A cost effectiveness analysis showed that this local school-based strategy for obtaining parental consent for program evaluation was more cost effective than in previous studies, however, more than 20% of the data collection costs involved obtaining active written consent.
American Journal of EvaluationWritten Parental Consent and the Use of Incentives in a Youth Smoking Prevention Trial: A Case Study From Project SPLASH
22 Citations2004Tricia A. Leakey, Kevin B. Lunde +2 more
The consent procedures and incentives used in the Project SPLASH smoking prevention trial, conducted in 20 Hawaii middle schools, were required to obtain active parental consent for three surveys across 2 years, and their effectiveness are described.
The Journal of Early AdolescenceAccessing Adolescents
21 Citations2004Kelly L’Engle, Carol J. Pardun +1 more
Psychological ReportsComparison of Return Procedures Involving Mailed versus Student-Delivered Parental Consent Forms
21 Citations1995Elizabeth MacGregor, John R. McNamara
The Medical Journal of AustraliaIndividual rights over public good? The future of anthropometric monitoring of school children in the fight against obesity
21 Citations2009Joanne M. Stubbs, Helen M. Achat
Opt‐out consent can facilitate anthropometric monitoring, delivering a more informed, best‐value‐for‐money response to the obesity epidemic, and health and education ethics committees need to acknowledge the benefits of opt‐ out consent for “low‐risk” anthropometric measurement.
PubMedConsent form return rates for third-grade urban elementary students.
15 Citations2006Peter Ji, Brian R. Flay +4 more
Incentives and class visits can yield a high return rate of active parent consent forms for third-grade minority, urban, low-income students.
