The Impact of Active Consent on Student Survey Data

Pacific Institute For Res And Evaluation, Beltsville MD

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Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Active written parental consent procedures are being used with increasing frequency in school-based alcohol and drug surveys of students. While the results of these surveys are frequently used to estimate ATOD use among adolescents and to assess the impact of ATOD prevention programs, comparatively little is known about how the use of active written parental consent procedures affects data from student samples. Additionally, no research has been conducted on how each stage in the active, written, consent process contributes to survey non-response. A two-year study is proposed that will assess the influence of active consent procedures on ATOD use, risk and protective factor and attitudinal measures, and on sample demographics in a multi-site student survey to be fielded in Kentucky. This proposal has three components: a student survey that uses an experimental design to randomly assign school districts to active or passive consent conditions; a replicated cross-sectional analysis that compares each district's 2005 survey data to its data from previous administrations of the KY survey; and a telephone survey of parents in four school districts assigned to active or passive consent conditions. The study concerns (a) comparing levels of non-response when active, written consent is used with levels of non-response when passive consent is used; (b) understanding the impact of of active written consent procedures on student survey data; (c) understanding the dynamics of the active written parental consent process and the impact of each stage of the consent form delivery and return process on levels of non-response and on student characteristics; and (d) developing practical consent form delivery and receipt strategies for researchers on how best to target subgroups of parents who are least likely to return active consent forms or to provide consent for their children to participate in the survey. By providing definitive evidence on the impact of active and passive consent procedures on student survey data, this proposal will help prevention practitioners improve the implementation of student surveys and will help prevention researchers and policymakers better understand the validity and reliability of student survey data. This proposal's goal of understanding the dynamics of the active written consent process will provide information on how each stage of the parental consent process contributes to non-response, and in doing so, will facilitate the identification and development of focused strategies that researchers and practitioners can use to minimize non-response. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]