Case Studies – Written Critiques
The authors of this article conducted a public health research Urban schools in the Midwest Town. The key issues that were to determine the active consent and passive consent among the various demographic groups within the area (Jansen-van der Weide, Caldwell, Young, de Vries, Willems, Van’t Hoff, & Offringa, 2015). Active consent is critical when conducting research. Active consent is explained as the process in which the participant or the guardian of the participant agrees to take part in the research process (Woolfall, Frith, & Young, 2015). The writers in this research sought the consent of the parents for their children to participate in research in their schools. The study was to cover various health components in the school. Some of the elements that were covered in the survey include height, weight, the levels of blood pressure, the school attendance, the special education needs, disciplinary issues, medical data of the participants, telephone interviews and achievement records of the students.
The authors used an active consent to allow them to seek reasonable agreement from the parents to allow their children to participate in the research. There were different demographics targeted in this case as a way of ensuring that the students play a role in the results that are generated in the end. Therefore, the authors sought to develop an approach of giving time to the parents to think and allow the children to take part in this kind of study (Fitzpatrick, Martiniuk, D’Antoine, Oscar, Carter, & Elliott, 2016). For example, the researchers decided that they will send a note to the parents and guardians about the upcoming research and the need to allow the students to take part in the forthcoming investigation. This is a process that is doe to ensure that all of the participants taking part in the study have consented. A passive consent occurs when the authors assume that those who do not respond to the consent letters are considered to have agreed to participate in the study.
This research was conducted to determine the differences in the consent among the different demographics in the urban center. Instead of taking a blanket consent in all of the elements highlighted above, the authors sought approval on the specific units such as weight and blood pressure (Ji, P., Brian., David, DuBois, Vanessa B., Joseph Day, & Dan C., (2006). Each parent or guardian was asked to consent about each of this measures of research. From the results, most of the parents agreed on height and weight. However, there were insignificant disparities in the contentment of these factors. This is an approach that was chosen by the authors to ensure that there is a maximum contribution or participation from the targeted groups (Riley, Anne, Christopher, George, Barbara, Bert, Judith & Phyllis F., 2004).
The study included demographics such as African American, Hispanic, white and all others. However, did not contain elements such as income, education and living standards. In this case, it means that the study did not determine the contentment on the levels of their income. The authors mentioned that the future researches need to allow enough time for the investigation to be conducted (Harrell, Chyrise, Jennifer Annette & Elaine,2000). The authors in this study gave an allowance of one month for their responses. This time could be limited by the fact that there is a need for adequate consideration from the participants and the time of research. The article contributes to the future knowledge on the responses of the active and passive consents. The authors recommend that there is a need to use active consent to increase the information received.
Theoretical Perspective
The goals of this study are to determine the levels of consent among the different demographics within the town. The authors wanted to determine the degree in which different groups can give permission to their sons and daughters to take part in the research. There is a need always to ensure that the participant’s consent with any research conducted (Esbensen, Michelle, Terrance, Ni, 1999). This will help to ensure that the outcome of the research study is relevant to the results and body of knowledge. For example, in this study, the authors wanted to determine if there is any form of disparity in the respective demographics within the Midwest Town. When it comes to active consent, the overall system of conducting research highlights a complete engagement of the research participants.
Moreover, the authors proposed the idea of providing a wide span of communities in the area. The idea is to determine if the element of consent vary with the respective populations of interest. Take, for example; the researchers researched the various communities in the (society Ewing, Erby, Bollinger, Tetteyfio, Ricks-Santi, & Kaufman, 2015). The writers stated that there is also the need to include the principals and let the parents understand that there is a research activity that shall be conducted in a particular period and time for it to increase the success rate in responses. Remember that the success of the sample participants informs the decisions and the overall success of the research. What was noted in the study is that the parents are protective of their children thus active or passive consent would work better in this cases in this kind of research projects.
The researchers also indicated that when older students are included in the research, then there is a need to ensure that a follow up is conducted. Persistence is needed as the results indicate that they do not return their forms as compared to those who are of lower grades in the school (Kahn, Mastroianni, & Sugarman, 2018). This may cause some statistical differences between these parties. The differences may exist, but it is crucial that the researchers use a technique that will serve the deliver a credible and successful data collection and analysis. The writers of this article argue that they will need to initiate appropriate planning steps to meet the demand of the program.
The theory that connects with this program is the theory of informed consent. This is the theory that explains that all participants in research need to be informed about the nature and the use of data collected (Katz, Webb, & Committee on Bioethics, 2016). This is mainly because of the theory demand for protection of the data that is obtained from the respective groups and participants that are studied. The goals of this program were met because the management in the school received the forms from the parents that consented to allow their children to be part of this research. The authors made a follow up on those students who may have misplaced their forms.
However, there were no plausible explanations that were ruled by the authors. The authors instead explained more on the relativity of informed consent cutting across all of the communities. The authors, in this case, sought to determine if there are any differences between the different populations within the city regarding consenting to participate in the research process. Since there were no any significant differences, it then strengthened the existing researches on the same area of study. A planning stage provides better control of issues that may arise in the process of conducting the investigation. The authors state that projects of this nature require effective planning to ensure that the quality data analysis is realized. Therefore, it is imperative that the researchers must develop an upfront plan that will support greater success in the management of results.
The principal methods that were applied by the authors, in this case, is a questionnaire. The children were given forms that required them to fill on the items that will allow their children to participate in the research. The parents needed to fill these forms and return them to the school. This is a form of a questionnaire which responses are given on time. There is no any form of unanticipated consequences that occurred in this research. Instead, all of the processes went on it was planned. The authors managed to get the responses that were sufficient enough to enable useful analysis in the organization.
However, the authors noted that the children that are in higher grades needed some levels of persistence to make a follow-up for them to deliver these forms. But the authors managed to collect appropriate data for analysis for this project. The goal to have got a maximum number of students to take the research was realized. This is an approach that helped in finding effective management of the project. Whenever research is conducted, the researchers develop a plan that will enable them to realize greater success in the project. Since this is a study that involves school going children, the consent of their parents to ensure that the information given is done with full knowledge.
Conclusion
The authors concluded that researchers must always be aware of the respective biases that arise in the population of interest. Hence, there is a need for them to understand for them to use active consent to limit such bias. The researchers studied the respective groups in the community or the locality and realized that there is a difference in the levels of approval across the separate groups. Furthermore, the authors concluded that seeking consent from the participants when conducting studies is essential in doing any research. They argued that the approval determines the success of the studies in the school-based programs. The consent process and time allowed for decision making affects the representation of the samples selected. The demographic discrepancies among consenters and those against the project have some significant differences. For example, income or otherwise.
This program achieved the plans or goals. The author sent the notices to the parents early as a way of seeking consent before conducting the research. The responses provided by the parents showed some levels of disparity among the population of the target. The authors collected forms for the active consenters and issued others for those who may have misplaced their responses. This allows them to determine the highest number of active responses in the population. Gathering information from a particular community or targeted group will help in increasing the high levels of reliability of the data generated. When the authors gain more knowledge from the respondents, this makes
The policy or program achieve its intended goals or outcomes in whole. This is because the information collected corroborates with the information that was generated by other researchers in this field. This shows that the researchers, in this case, have managed to provide knowledge on how the differences between the communities explain the need to develop a practical approach in the management of respondents. These results can be put in use in the ministry of education. The evaluation process of the respondents provides an opportunity for the researchers to ensure that there is a systemic approach towards the meaningful generation of information for the research.
The authors recommend there need to combine both the active consent and passive consent as a way of increasing the data collection process. When a more significant number of respondents are reached, then this is going to ensure that there is better data analysis (Bethell, Read, Stein, Blumberg, Wells & Newacheck 2002). Moreover, the consent process is an integral process in the success and must be included during the planning stages. The authors explain that they experienced challenges in the bringing on board all parents on the targeted schools.
Furthermore, the authors recommend that there is a need to allocate more resources such as time, finances and the staff to handle the demands for such projects. For example, the writers explained that they used about $3,500. Additionally, they also used four weeks and hired additional staff to help in conducting the research. The time allocated will assist in eliminating the consent deviations and its consequences.
Another recommendation is that there is a need to incorporate different players in the project. For example, the school managers, the principal, the teachers, staff and interested parties (Kochanek, Scholz & Garcia, 2015). These are the individuals who play a key to ensuring that the respective students have returned all of the consent forms. In any case, there are those who may not have answered their own; then they will help in making a follow-up. In the long run, issues relating with the participants who may have lost or misplaced their forms can be adequately addressed.
Finally, the combination of passive and active consent process will help in increasing the rates of participation (Harrington et al., 1997). This will improve the demographics and eliminate risks related to the data collection process. Therefore, the future researchers need to use both active and passive consent process to improve their responses.
The concepts that are applicable in this case include quantitative methodology. This is a research methodology which provides for quantitative analysis. Quantitative research means that the researchers are using a quantitative approach to conduct the study (Walter, & Andersen, 2016). For example, the researchers collected information from students. The students are countable and the data collected is quantifiable (Cline, Tara, Elena, & Tara, 2005). In other words, the data collected can be counted. The population in which data collection process is conducted include the students and the parents.
In this study, the authors have indicated that the 87.6% of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) respondents accepted to take part in the health screening. On the other hand, 54.6% of the Hispanic group agreed to take part in the study. These analyses are the quantitative methodology. Every review or research where the participants are counted forms quantitative methods or research design. The quantitative research methodology is used in most of the studies. This is because many people believe that quantitative research methods are more objective and it is not subject to bias.
The students are given consent forms whereby the forms that have been returned are counted and recorded. Those who refuse are eliminated from the group that is under study. The statistical analysis shows that there is an insignificant difference between the various communities that are eligible for this study (Henry, Smith & Hopkins, 2002). However, the results that there are some minimal differences between the Whites and other communities when it comes to consent on the issue of disciplinary data across the schools that were studied. This is a quantitative research design.
Program theory is also applicable to this article. This is because the article writers develop an approach on how the active consent must be sought in projects of this nature. The program is applied universally across the entire population. This is to mean that this kind of program is working for whole projects of this nature. Whenever researchers seek to conduct research, there is need to ensure that all of the parties that are involved in the research are consenting about the information that is collected from them (Hussemann, Mortimer & Zhang, 2016). This is going to boost the success rate of the data collection process.
References
Bethell C. D., Read D., Stein R. E. K., Blumberg S. J., Wells N., & Newacheck P. W., (2002). Identifying children with special health care needs; development and evaluation of a short screening instrument. Ambulatory Pediatrics 2:38-47.
Cline A., Tara S., Elena S., & Tara H., (2005). Recruitment strategies for the Princeton (Ohio) City School District Epidemiological Study. Journal of School Health 75):189-91.
Esbensen., Michelle H., Terrance J., Ni H., (1999). Differential attrition rates and active parental consent. Evaluation Review 23:316.
Ewing, A. T., Erby, L. A., Bollinger, J., Tetteyfio, E., Ricks-Santi, L. J., & Kaufman, D. (2015). Demographic differences in willingness to provide broad and narrow consent for biobank research. Biopreservation and biobanking, 13(2), 98-106.
Chyrise B., Jennifer D., Annette., & Elaine S., (2000). School-based research: Problems of access and consent. Journal of Pediatric Nursing 15:14-21.
Henry K., Edward S., & Abigail H., (2002). The effect of active parental consent on the ability to generalize the results of an alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention trial to rural adolescents. Evaluation Review 26:645-55.
Hussemann, J. M., Mortimer, J. T., & Zhang, L. (2016). Exploring the correlates of parental consent for children’s participation in surveys: An intergenerational longitudinal study. Public Opinion Quarterly, 80(3), 642-665.
Fitzpatrick, E. F., Martiniuk, A. L., D’Antoine, H., Oscar, J., Carter, M., & Elliott, E. J. (2016). Seeking consent for research with indigenous communities: a systematic review. BMC medical ethics, 17(1), 65.
Jansen-van der Weide, M. C., Caldwell, P. H., Young, B., de Vries, M. C., Willems, D. L., Van’t Hoff, W., … & Offringa, M. (2015). Clinical trial decisions in difficult circumstances: parental consent under time pressure. Pediatrics, peds-2014.
Ji, Peter, Brian R. Flay, David L. DuBois, Vanessa Brechling, Joseph Day, & Dan Cantillon. (2006). Consent form return rates for third grade urban elementary students. American Journal of Health Behavior 30:467-74.
Kahn, J. P., Mastroianni, A. C., & Sugarman, J. (Eds.). (2018). Beyond consent: Seeking justice in research. Oxford University Press.
Kochanek, J. R., Scholz, C., & Garcia, A. J. (2015). Mapping the collaborative research process. education policy analysis archives, 23, 121.
Katz, A. L., Webb, S. A., & Committee on Bioethics. (2016). Informed consent in decision-making in pediatric practice. Pediatrics, e20161485.
Riley, Anne W., Christopher B., George W., Barbara S., Bert F., Judith A., & Phyllis F., (2004). The child report form of the chip-child edition—Reliability and validity. Medical Care 42:221-31.
Walter, M., & Andersen, C. (2016). nayri kati (“Good Numbers”)—Indigenous Quantitative Methodology in Practice. In Indigenous Statistics (pp. 82-110). Routledge.
Woolfall, K., Frith, L., & Young, B. (2015). P07 Evidence-based guidance to inform consent seeking in children’s critical care trials.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
