Results

Protecting Confidentiality When Conducting an Internet Survey
Celia B. Fisher
In conducting a survey on marital conflict over the Internet, a research psychologist fails to protect the confidentiality of respondents’ data. Fisher presents this as an example of poor research practices.

Trouble on the Horizon
James M. DuBois and Angela Dunn
Administrators at a rehabilitation facility for teenage girls want to report the success of their programs in a regional adolescent health journal. However, data were originally collected as part of treatment and not for research purposes, and there is risk of certain girls being identifiable.

Research with Sex Addicts
James M. DuBois and Angela Dunn
While studying sex addiction in women, a researcher learns that a participant is having sex with a minor.

Learning
Joan Sieber
Dr. Jones collects oral histories from members of an ethnically diverse neighborhood as part of a study on aggressive behavior in children and would like to share the compiled document with community members to promote study buy-in. An IRB member claims that to do so would violate participant confidentiality.

Too Blue
Gerald P. Koocher and Patricia C. Keith-Spiegel
Teenagers were administered a widely used and standardized self-report depression scale as part of a larger battery of assessments. Ned Blue’s test indicated such an elevated score that the researcher was seriously concerned about the young man’s welfare.

Working at Cross Purposes
Joan E. Sieber
A researcher attempts to gather information from Chicano families regarding children’s needs. The researcher is unaware that many of the people in the community are not legal residents of the U.S., a fact that may effect respondents answers and the sampling design.

Personnel Action
Joan E. Sieber
In the report of a study of employees at a large company, it was possible to deduce from a table of summary statistics personal information about a particular employee because of his age, race, and department.

Confidentiality and Using Community Members as Interviewers
Joan E. Sieber
Unanticipated problems arise when a researcher employs community members as interviewers for a survey of black teenage crack users. Sieber presents this as an example of good research practices.

Ethical Issues in Longitudinal Research with At-Risk Children and Adolescents
Brian Schrag
A researcher wants to conduct surveys and interviews with grade school children to study resilience and exposure to maladaptive environments. The school principal insists that she does not need parental consent for the study, as the school supports the study.

Paper or Plastic? From Paper Records to Electronic Database
Brian Schrag
Dr. Edwards has developed an electronic database to manage patient records. He is beginning to use the database as a research tool, but his patients have never consented to having their data used for research purposes.

Motivating Research Participation
Jean Campbell
A researcher struggles to recruit sufficient numbers of mental health consumers to participate in an evaluation study of county mental health services before and after a major reorganization of the delivery system.

Conducting Survey Research with Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders
Emily E. Anderson
You are a researcher administering surveys to adolescents with anxiety disorders. The IRB asks you to change the information included on parental consent forms.

Maintaining Privacy in Recruitment
Emily E. Anderson
You want to conduct research with recovering alcoholics and must consider how best to protect participant anonymity during recruitment.

Reporting Findings of Adolescent Mental Health Issues Discovered in Research
Emily E. Anderson
An institutional review board reviews a study that aims to develop a screening program to identify adolescents at risk for suicide.

Research in a War Zone
Emily E. Anderson
In a study investigating exposure to violence and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children in Palestine, researchers consider how best to obtain informed consent from child participants and parents who are vulnerable due to trauma and suspicious of strangers.

Using Old Data to Explore New Research Questions
Emily E. Anderson
Investigators propose to use existing videotapes from a study on parent-child interactions for further research purposes. IRB members consider what to do about participant informed consent.

Waivers of Parental Permission for Research with Gay and Lesbian Adolescents
Emily E. Anderson
Researchers seek a wavier of parental/guardian consent for a study examining psychosocial stressors and anxiety and depressive disorders in gay and lesbian adolescents.