BARRY UNIVERSITY
INFORMED CONSENT FOR AN ONLINE SURVEY
Title of Study: COVID-19 and Psychological Well-Being
Who is conducting the research?
Linda L. Bacheller, PsyD, JD
Department of Psychology
11300 NE Second Ave
Miami Shores, FL 33161
305-899-4576
[email protected]
Pamela D. Hall, PhD
Department of Psychology
11300 NE Second Ave
Miami Shores, FL 33161
305-899-3272
[email protected]
What is the study purpose? You are invited to participate in an online study aiming to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals’ psychological well-being .
Am I eligible to participate? You are eligible to participate in this study if you are 18 years of age or older. We are seeking 2000 participants.
What does my participation involve? You are asked to complete an online questionnaire that takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. No personally identifying information will be collected (e.g., IP address). That is, the survey is designed to collect anonymous data.
What will be asked? You will be asked questions about the complete the following questionnaires:
1. A brief demographic (age, gender, ethnicity)
2. The Fear of COVID-19 Scale
3. Scales of Psychological Well-Being
4. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire
What are the benefits? While there will be no direct benefit to you, information that you provide will contribute to our knowledge of COVID-19 and Psychological Well-Being.
What are the risks? There is minimal risk. There may be some feelings of emotional discomfort while taking this study. If you should feel any discomfortable feelings, please call National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or Live Online Chat, or SAMHSA Treatment Referral Helpline, 1-877-SAMHSA7 (1-877-726-4727) or you may contact The Association of Black Psychologists-South Florida at [email protected]
What will be done with my information? The information you share will be anonymous and will only be used for research purposes. All information will be protected as required by the Barry University Institutional Review Board, which oversees all University research. No names will be included in any presentation or publication of the study findings. We may use or share your research information for future research studies. If we share your information with other researchers, we will not share any information that can directly identify you. These future studies may be similar to this study or completely different. We will not ask for your additional consent to use the de-identified data in future studies.
As a research participant, information you provide will be kept anonymous, that is, no names or other identifiers will be collected. Your opinions will be collected via an anonymous online survey tool, PsychData. The following description outlines PsychData’s policies with respect to confidentiality and data security: “PsychData is specifically designed to meet and exceed industry standards for Internet security as well as IRB standards for the protection of research participants. Our servers, database, and web presence employ multiple forms of enterprise-level security features to accomplish these goals. PsychData utilizes Secure Socket Layer (SSL) 256-bit encryption technology to ensure protection of all data transactions on our website. Data is encrypted at the instant that a user submits it and can only be decoded by the target server. PsychData maintains an SSL certificate from VeriSign, the industry leader in SSL technology.” In addition, PsychData allows for disabling IP address collection, thereby assuring that the results I will receive will be truly anonymous and there will be no record kept of your IP address nor linkages I could utilize to identify you. Upon completion of data collection, all electronic data will be downloaded and then deleted from the PsychData server.
Data will be kept for at least five years on a password protected computer. The researchers will be the only ones who have access to the data. There will be no paper documents that need to be destroyed, and the online data is de-identified, therefore it will be deleted when no longer needed.
How can I withdraw from the study? Your participation in this study is voluntary and you are able to withdraw at any point by closing your web browser before you submit.
Will I be compensated for participating? There is no compensation for participating in this study.
How can I get more information? For more information, or if you wish to receive a summary of the study findings, you may contact the researchers through their contact information listed above.
Certification: The Barry University Institutional Review Board (IRB) has reviewed and approved this research. If you wish to discuss your rights as a research participant, you may contact Anoush McNamee ([email protected] or 305-899-3020 who is the Barry University IRB Point of Contact.
I understand what this study is about, that my participation is voluntary, that I can end my participation at any time without penalty, and that completion of the survey will indicate my consent to participate. Please click [NEXT] to access the survey. Thank you.
This study has been approved by Barry University's IRB: 1812524-2