Youth surveys & parental consent

[Joanna Marks]

Hi COEN-ites, can I pick brains about surveying youth? How are you doing parental consent, if at all, these days? I am working with a team that's proposing an anonymous online survey of high school students (QR codes at places like libraries and rec centers), with optional entry of an email address to be entered in a drawing for a bluetooth speaker. Historically I have been a stickler about parents opting in to consent but there is a tradeoff in terms of participation and wondering if I should be thinking about this differently in the digital age. (One example might be a teen completing a survey linked via social media -- there's not a way to get even passive parental consent.)

Would appreciate any and all thoughts!

Warmly,

Joanna Marks

joannamark...@gmail.com

[Mariana Enriquez]

Hi Joanna,

I don't know that I'm answering your question, but here are a few thoughts that I hope are useful:

• I think it will be difficult to get parental consent with a convenience sample like that.
• I would make sure to include an assent form before the actual survey. That form should follow all the federal requirements such as voluntary, risks, benefits, information about what you plan to do with the data, and so on.
• I would consider the topic and type of questions you are planning to ask: If you were to apply for IRB approval, what do you think are the chances that they would approve your survey given the topic and type of questions you are planning to ask? In other words, if the questions are sensitive in nature, I would consider finding a target sample where parents would have to give parental consent, if not "sensitive," your convenience sample is probably okay.
• One critical thing you may want to consider is ensuring that your respondents are who they say they are. If you have a QR code open to anyone at a library or rec center, you may get respondents who are pretending to be high school students, just because there is a chance to get the bluetooth speaker. You may want to consider asking the name and address of the high school they are attending, what grade they are in, etc., as well as asking for an actual postal address in the target location (e.g., city/county) to make sure your respondents are who you want.

Hope this is helpful, and feel free to reach out directly to me if you want to chat more. Good luck!

Mariana

Mariana Enríquez, Ph.D.

Program Evaluation Consultant

enriquez.mari...@gmail.com

Ph: 303.548.6132

Progress is the victory of a new thought over old superstitions.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

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[Joanna Marks]

Hi Mariana,

Thanks for your response. I agree on all counts! Duplicate responses, people who aren't who they say they are, and click farms sure make survey work harder than it used to be. There are some more formally engaged groups of youth (advisory groups, student organizations) that we are also exploring surveying with the help of organization / school partners and a parental passive consent letter that has been distributed in these settings before to make parents aware and offer the option to opt out.

Warmly,

Joanna Marks

joannamark...@gmail.com

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