Demographic, psychosocial and behavioral differences in samples of actively and passively consented adolescents

doi:10.1016/0306-4603(93)90008-W

Addictive Behaviors

Volume 18, Issue 1, January–February 1993, Pages 51-56

https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4603(93)90008-W Get rights and content

Abstract

Requiring active consent from parents leads to different self-reports by adolescents than when it is not required. The present study compares self-reported demographic, psychosocial, and behavior variables between those students from whom active consent was and was not obtained. As found in previous studies, fewer minorities, fewer persons who were dissatisfied with school, fewer persons whose parents were of lower educational levels, and fewer cigarette smokers were represented in the sample recruited by active parental consent. Extending on previous work, we found those students whose parents failed to respond to the consent procedure were less likely to live with both parents, were more likely to be latch-key children, placed a lower priority on health, and were higher in risk-taking, lower in self-esteem, and lower in assertiveness than those whose parents had responded. These data further support the suggestion that those children who are omitted from a research study because of lack of action on the part of the parent are at higher risk for a number of health and social problems. These children need to be included in evaluation samples in order to accurately assess the effectiveness of prevention programming. Future studies should employ a passive consent procedure as a means of recruiting a representative subject pool in school-based prevention research.

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Cited by (89)

The Effects of Requiring Parental Consent for Research on Adolescents' Risk Behaviors: A Meta-analysis
2017, Journal of Adolescent Health
Citation Excerpt :
The low-response rates reported in active consent studies reflect a systematic bias of sampling in a way that over-represents some portions of the population while under-representing others. For example, active consent procedures yielded study samples that over-represented female and Caucasian students [15,16] and students with high academic achievement [10], and under-represented minority groups such as African-American and Asian American students, Hispanic youth [9,17], children who were low achievers, and children whose parents were less well-educated [15,16]. Significant differences between respondents and nonrespondents may also emerge in the prevalence of risk behaviors when active consent procedures are used [12,17].
Requiring parental consent may result in sampling biases that confound scientific conclusions and stifle the representation of children most at risk for adverse outcomes. This study aims to investigate whether active parental consent, compared with passive parental consent, creates a bias in response rate, demographic makeup, and adverse outcomes in adolescent samples.
A meta-analysis was performed on peer-reviewed articles and unpublished dissertations from 1975 to 2016 in five computerized databases ERIC, PsycINFO, MEDLINE, PubMed and ProQuest. Quantitative studies were retained if they included the following keywords: active consent (or informed consent or parental consent), passive consent (or waiver of consent), risk behavior, adolescen*.
Fifteen studies were identified with a total number of 104,074 children. Results showed (1) response rates were significantly lower for studies using active consent procedure than those using passive consent procedure (Z = 3.05, p = .002); (2) more females, younger participants, and less African-Americans were included in studies using active consent procedures than studies using passive procedures (Z = −2.73, p = .006; Z = −12.06, p < .00001; Z = 2.19, p = .03, respectively); (3) studies with passive consent procedures showed higher rates of self-reported substance use than studies using active consent procedures (Z = 3.07, p = .002).
Requiring active parental consent can lead to a systematic bias in the sample where the population under study is misrepresented. Institutional review board committees should collaborate with researchers to find solutions that protect minors without silencing the voice of high-risk youth in the literature.
Measuring Success: Evaluation Designs and Approaches to Assessing the Impact of School-Based Health Centers
2016, Journal of Adolescent Health
Citation Excerpt :
Although this manuscript was not structured as a systematic review, an example of each approach in practice is also provided. Suboptimal participation rates—both in terms of absolute numbers and representativeness—introduce the possibility of bias and have been documented as a challenge [35,44–46]. Through planning, coordinating with school events, and collaborating with teachers and administrators, researchers can work to obtain high, representative rates of participation while adhering to ethical principles [13], regardless of the format by which parental permission is solicited (i.e., active or passive “opt-out”).
Since the founding of the first school-based health centers (SBHCs) >45 years ago, researchers have attempted to measure their impact on child and adolescent physical and mental health and academic outcomes.
A review of the literature finds that SBHC evaluation studies have been diverse, encompassing different outcomes and varying target populations, study periods, methodological designs, and scales.
A complex picture emerges of the impact of SBHCs on health outcomes, which may be a function of the specific health outcomes examined, the health needs of specific communities and schools, the characteristics of the individuals assessed, and/or the specific constellation of SBHC services. SBHC evaluations face numerous challenges that affect the interpretation of evaluation findings, including maturation, self-selection, low statistical power, and displacement effects.
Using novel approaches such as implementing a multipronged approach to maximize participation, entering-class proxy-baseline design, propensity score methods, data set linkage, and multisite collaboration may mitigate documented challenges in SBHC evaluation.
Diagnostic efficiency of several methods of identifying socially rejected children and effect of participation rate on classification accuracy
2011, Journal of School Psychology
Social rejection is associated with a wide variety of negative outcomes. Early identification of social rejection and intervention to minimize its negative impact is thus important. However, sociometric methods, which are considered high in validity for identifying socially rejected children, are frequently not used because of (a) procedural challenges, (b) community apprehension, and (c) sensitivity to missing data. In a sample of 316 students in grades K through 8, we used receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analyses to compare the diagnostic efficiency of several methods for identifying socially rejected children. When not using least-liked nominations, (a) most-liked nominations yielded the greatest diagnostic efficiency (AUC = .96), (b) peer ratings were more efficient (AUC = .84 to .99) than teacher ratings (AUC = .74 to .81), and (c) teacher report of social status was more efficient (AUC = .81) than scores from teacher behavior rating scales (AUC = .74 to .75). We also examined the effects of nominator non-participation on diagnostic efficiency. At participation as low as 50%, classification of sociometric rejection (i.e., being rejected or not rejected) was quite accurate (κ = .63 to .77). In contrast, at participation as high as 70%, classification of sociometric status (i.e., popular, average, unclassified, neglected, controversial, or rejected) was significantly less accurate (κ = .50 to .59).
The association between peer victimization and functioning at school among urban Latino children
2011, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
Citation Excerpt :
The small sample size was partially due to the relatively low overall positive consent rate and the students who took part in the study may be more academically engaged than their non-participating peers. Researchers typically have difficulty obtaining parental consent when conducting school-based research (Fletcher & Hunter, 2003) and the problems appear to be magnified in schools with children from low SES backgrounds (Dent et al., 1993). Measuring all of the variables concurrently is another major limitation of the current study.
This study utilized a multi-informant approach to investigate the concurrent association between peer victimization and functioning at school in a predominantly Latino sample of 135 children (55 boys; 80 girls) in the third, fourth, and fifth grades. The children attended elementary schools in economically distressed urban neighborhoods. Victimization by peers was associated with low grade point averages (GPA) and poor school engagement. Mediation analysis showed that school engagement explained the relation between peer victimization and GPA. Moderator analyses indicated that the negative association between peer victimization and school engagement was exacerbated for children with numerous friends in their classrooms. Additional moderator analyses revealed that the negative association between victimization and engagement was stronger for children with many aggressive friends. The results extend past research by investigating a mediator and moderators of the association between peer victimization and functioning at school in an understudied population.
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^☆: This research was supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute (CA#44907) awarded to S. Sussman, C.W. Dent, D. Burton, A. Stacy, and B.R. Flay.

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Demographic, psychosocial and behavioral differences in samples of actively and passively consented adolescents☆

Abstract

Addictive Behaviors

Preventive Medicine

Baseline nonresponse in Project ALERT: Does it matter?

Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences

A comparison of complete and partial sampling in repeatedly accessible populations of naturally clustered units

Designing and implementing Project ALERT: A smoking and drug prevention experiment

An assessment of active versus passive methods for obtaining parental consent

Evaluation Review