Are researchers bound by child abuse reporting laws?

Conducting Clinically Based Intimate Partner Violence Research: Safety Protocol Recommendations

BACKGROUND

Maintaining safety is of utmost importance during research involving participants who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). Limited guidance on safety protocols to protect participants is available, particularly information related to technology-based approaches to informed consent, data collection, and contacting participants during the course of a study.

PURPOSE

The purpose of the article is to provide details on the safety protocol developed and utilized with women receiving care at an urban HIV clinic and who were taking part in an observational study of IPV, mental health symptoms, and substance abuse and their relationship to HIV treatment adherence. The protocol presents the technological strategies to promote safety and allow autonomy in participant decision-making throughout the research process, including Voice over Internet Protocol telephone numbers, and tablet-based eligibility screening and data collection. Protocols for management of participants at risk for suicide and/or intimate partner homicide that included automated high-risk messaging to participants and research staff and facilitated disclosure of risk to clinical staff based on participant preferences are discussed.

DISCUSSION

Use of technology and partnership with clinic staff helped to provide an environment where research regarding IPV could be conducted without undue burden or risk to participants. Utilizing tablet-based survey administration provided multiple practical and safety benefits for participants. Most women who screened into high-risk categories for suicide or intimate partner homicide did not choose to have their results shared with their healthcare providers, indicating the importance of allowing participants control over information sharing whenever possible.

Ethical conduct in intimate partner violence research: challenges and strategies

Intimate partner violence (IPV) research has expanded dramatically in the past 2 decades. However, updated ethical guidelines to protect the safety and autonomy of research participants, study data, and the research team are still lacking in this evolving area of research. This article presents general concepts in research ethics and the specific challenges and strategies for IPV research related to recruitment and retention, maintenance of women's safety, privacy, and confidentiality, and their voluntary participation as well as assessment of benefits and risks, strategies to minimize risk, the Certificates of Confidentiality, and training of the research team. This area of nursing research is critical for developing practice guidelines and improving the health and quality of life of abused women.

Ethical Considerations in Conducting Family Violence Research

There is a lack of procedure in the UK guiding social researchers faced with ethical questions. In particular, investigators concerned with family violence and its effects on children face some of the most complex ethical dilemmas in social research and there is a need for greater transparency of ethical procedures.

This paper summarizes some key ethical principles guiding social research focused on children, and the decisions that researchers face when conducting studies in the area of child maltreatment or domestic violence. A case example of a study conducted in Dublin, Ireland is used to illustrate difficulties surrounding decisions of informed consent, confidentiality and disclosure, distress and danger, and questioning children directly about their experiences of family violence. The advice of the ethics committee and the solutions agreed by the research team are shared.

While the study was subject to a review by an independent ethics committee, in the absence of nationally-recognized or agreed guidelines, good ethical practice is largely dependent upon the moral judgments of the research team. It is hoped that by providing one such case example, others might be encouraged to report on their own ethical protocols and procedures.

Development of a policy-relevant child maltreatment research strategy

Child maltreatment is associated with a huge burden of suffering, yet there are serious gaps in knowledge about its epidemiology and approaches to intervention. This article describes the development of a proposed national research framework in child maltreatment, as requested by the Department of Justice, Canada, based on (1) a review of the literature, (2) consultation with experts, and (3) application of evaluation criteria for considering research priorities. The article identifies gaps in knowledge about child maltreatment in Canada and proposes a research agenda to make evidence-based policy decisions more likely. Although this work was driven by gaps in Canada's knowledge about child maltreatment, the international scope of the review and consultation process could make the findings useful to broader research and policy audiences.

Reporting participants in research studies to Child Protective Services: limited risk to attrition

This study examines the impact of Child Protective Services (CPS) reports made by research study staff on participant retention and discusses human subjects protocols that may minimize either the need to make such reports or the negative impact of reporting on participants and on participant retention. Among 1, 354 primary caregiver-child pairs in the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) studies, a total of 15 were reported to CPS by study staff. Within this group, rates of study-generated reports and study participation subsequent to having been reported by researchers were examined. There was an overall retention rate of 93% across a minimum of three interview waves in this sample. Reporting research participants to CPS may have little impact on attrition.

Hotline Tip to Probable Cause: Filling the Gap Between Suspicion and Physical Abuse Findings for Mandated Reporters

Almost all care managers are mandated reporters and as such they are responsible for reporting suspected cases of child abuse or neglect to state child protective services. Experienced case managers understand that making a call to an abuse hotline does not guarantee that the family or child will get the help that they believe will reduce the child’s risk of abuse. This article addresses legal and policy aspects of reporting child maltreatment and will include an examination of the policies on mandated reporting and professional and legal definitions of abuse. It will define the fundamental elements of parents’ rights and will demonstrate how those rights interface with governments’ responsibilities to protect children. It will also identify ways in which care managers can enhance child risk assessments and the results of reporting suspected child abuse through planning, facilitation, outcome, and professional development.

Cultural and Ethical Issues Concerning Research on American Indian Youth

A study of American Indian youths illustrates competing pressures between research and ethics. A stakeholder-researcher team developed three plans to protect participants. The first allowed participants to skip potentially upsetting interview sections. The second called for participants to skip potentially upsetting interview sections. The second called for participants flagged for abuse or suicidality to receive referrals, emergency 24-hr clinical backup, or both. The third, based on the community's desire to promote service access, included giving participants a list of service resources. Interviewers gave referrals to participants flagged as having mild problems, and reported participants with serious problems to supervisors for clinical backup. Participants seldom chose to skip sections, so data integrity was not compromised. However, participants did have more problems than expected (e.g., 1 in 3 had thought about suicide, 1 in 5 had attempted suicide, and 1 in 4 reported abuse), so service agencies were not equipped to respond. Researchers must accept the competing pressures and find ethically appropriate compromises that will not undermine research integrity.

Methodological issues associated with studying an illegal act: assisted dying

The experience of receiving patient requests for assistance in prematurely ending life can represent both an ethical and legal dilemma for nurses in the United States. Similarly, the study of nurses' involvement with such a sensitive topic also poses risks to the study participants, the researcher, and the nursing profession's covenant with society. The purpose of this article is to explore methodological issues and approaches associated with studying an ethically and legally sensitive issue, and to describe application of these approaches to a study of oncology nurses' experiences with receiving requests for assisted dying from terminally ill patients with cancer.

Measuring child sexual abuse in children and youth

Asking children and adolescents directly about their experience of sexual victimization overcomes some of the methodological weaknesses inherent in other approaches. Yet complex legal, ethical, and methodological issues remain. This paper reviews the psychometric properties of those questions or instruments that have measured exposure to child sexual abuse directly. A search of four electronic databases using descriptors "child sexual abuse" and "measurement" or "instrumentation" yielded four telephone administered tools, 13 face-to-face interviews, and 32 self-administered questionnaires. Few instruments had been subjected to rigorous evaluation. Establishing the validity and reliability of instruments measuring child sexual abuse and other forms of victimization are critical for the growth and expansion of the field.

Risks and wrongs in social science research. An evaluator's guide to the IRB

Having an Institutional Review Board (IRB) review and monitor the use of human subjects is now fundamental to ethical research. Yet social scientists appear increasingly frustrated with the process. This article aims to assist evaluators struggling to understand and work with IRBs. The author theorizes why IRBs frustrate and insists there is only one remedy: We must accept the legitimacy of IRB review and (a) learn more about IRB regulations, imperatives, and the new pressures on them; and (b) educate IRBs about social scientific methodologies and empirically demonstrable risks. A research agenda and tips are offered.