Consent
Project Title: Men’s Sex Survey
Introduction
Before agreeing to participate in this research study, it is important that you read and understand this research consent form. This form presents the information we think you need to know about this study. With this information, you can decide whether you want to be in the study. If you have questions after you read this form, please ask one of the people working on the study. You should not sign this form until you are sure you understand everything on it. You may also want to talk about participating in this study with a family member or a close friend. We encourage you to save a copy of this consent form for your own records. You can do so by selecting the print button your web browser.
Researchers
Dr. Andrew D. Eaton (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Work – Saskatoon Campus, University of Regina, Andrew.eaton@uregina.ca, 306-664-7371)
Mr. Travis R. Scheadler (PhD Student, The Ohio State University, College of Social Work, Scheadler.2@osu.edu)
Dr. Paul Shuper (Senior Scientist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, paul.shuper@camh.ca)
Dr. Lauren B. McInroy (Associate Professor, The Ohio State University, College of Social Work, mcinroy.1@osu.edu)
Dr. Frank R. Dillon (Professor, Arizona State University, frank.dillon@asu.edu)
Mr. Adam Busch (Adam Busch Therapy, adambuschtherapy@gmail.com)
Dr. Tyrone Curtis (University of Victoria, tcurtis@uvic.ca)
Mr. Daniel Vandervoort (University of Regina, d.vandervoort@utoronto.ca)
Purpose(s) and Objective(s) of the Research
We are inviting you to participate in this research study to understand your experiences related to your sexual identity development, behaviours, attractions, relationships, and technology use. In particular, we want to gain greater insight into the lived experiences of heterosexual men who have sex with men, with the goal of determining directions for targeted intervention efforts to promote healthy lives.
We will present this study at a juried conferences and we intend to write articles about this study for peer-reviewed journals. We also plan to create community reports, conference presentations, plain language summaries, blogs and media reports. These publications will not include any personally identifiable information. Notice of these publications will be posted on the University of Regina’s Faculty of Social Work’s website.
Eligibility
If you are interested in participating, we welcome your participation in this project if you:
• Are a cisgender man
• Are at least 18 years old or older
• Reside in Canada, the United States, or the United Kingdom
Procedures
• If you consent to participate in this study, your participation will involve completing an online survey that is estimated to take 20-25 minutes. You will be given a list of resources specific to men who have sex with men and crisis resources at the end of the survey.
• During the survey, you may be asked if you are interested in participating in an interview. If you indicate interest in participating in an interview and you are a heterosexually-identified man who has sex with other men, a member of the research team may reach out to you via email to schedule an interview over Zoom. During the Zoom meeting, the researcher will review this consent form and you may ask any questions that you may have. That meeting will also include the interview, if you consent to participate. The interview is estimated to last approximately one hour.
• You do not have to answer any question that you do not feel like answering during the survey or interview. You do not have to give a reason for not answering if you do not want to. You can also withdraw your consent from the study during the survey or interview, and for one week following completion of the interview with no consequence. Withdrawing from the study will not affect your relationship with any of the study investigators, your relationship with any of the investigators’ institutions or organizations, nor will it affect your eligibility to participate, volunteer, and/or work in future research projects offered by the investigators and/or their affiliations.
• Please feel free to ask any questions regarding the procedures and goals of the study or your role.
Funding
This study is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in Canada.
Potential Risks
• There are no known or anticipated risks to you by participating in this research, but there is a chance that you could find some parts of this study uncomfortable. You are going to be asked some questions about your identity development, attraction, behaviour, relationships, and technology use. We need to ask these questions for the study to understand how best to provide support in these areas.
• If you feel any discomfort during the study, we will encourage you to follow up with Dr. Eaton (Principal Investigator), who can refer you to local support services.
• Once seven days have passed since interview completion, the principal investigator will de-identify your data by deleting any identifiable information. Only the principal investigator and research coordinator will have access to identifiable study data. The rest of the research team will only have access to the de-identified data.
• Your name or anything else that identifies you specifically will not be included when we write up the results.
• During your participation in the study, you can stop being part of the study and choose to have the information already collected from you included in the study deleted. If you choose to withdraw after one week following completion of the interview, we will not be able to delete your information as it will have been de-identified. Your ability to access any services or resources from the affiliated institutions will not be impacted by either being in the study or withdrawing from the study at any time.
Potential Benefits
You may not benefit directly from participating in this research. We hope that this study will help improve services for heterosexual men who have sex with other men, and other sexually active men, in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Compensation
To compensate for your participation in the survey, you will be asked if you would like to enter into a raffle to win a $30 electronic Amazon gift card. There will be 30 gift cards available to be raffled among participants from Canada, 30 gift cards available to be raffled among participants from the United States, and 30 gift cards to available to be raffled among participants from the United Kingdom. If you withdraw participation during the survey, you will still be eligible to enter the raffle. The gift card will be sent to your email.
To compensate for your participation in the interview, you will be provided with a $30 electronic Amazon gift card after completing the interview. If you withdraw your participation during the interview, you will still receive the $30 as compensation. The gift card will be sent to your email.
Confidentiality
All information collected in this study is confidential, which means that the study team will not tell other participants, faculty, staff, or anyone else what you say in the study.
In order to comply with University policy regarding gift card compensation, you will need to sign a Participant Receipt of Compensation Form. Participant Receipt of Compensation Forms will be stored for 7 years in a sealed envelope within a secure file in Financial Services at the University of Regina. The envelope will only be opened in the event that the file is part of a financial audit. The only information in the file will be your name and the type and amount of compensation you received. All email communications with you will not contain any information about the study and will be deleted immediately upon receipt of the form. There are inherent security issues when using email as a communication tool. By default, emails are not encrypted and are vulnerable to interception by outside sources or someone may see that you are involved in this research if you leave your browser open. We will use the term/phrase “Men’s Health” in the subject-line of all email correspondence so you will know the email is from us.”
The Research Team will keep all of your answers confidential to the extent permitted by law. There are certain situations where we would not be able to keep everything you say confidential, due to legal limitations:
1) if you are at imminent risk of committing suicide or inflicting severe bodily harm on another person,
2) if you told us about a child under the age of 16 at risk of neglect, and
3) if your records were subpoenaed by a Canadian governmental organization.
A quote from your interview participation may be used when the study’s results are published; no identifiable information will be included in the quote, however, we cannot guarantee complete anonymity.
The only individuals who may see your name are Dr. Eaton (Principal Investigator) and Mr. Travis Scheadler (research coordinator). We will never give out your name to anyone else unless a court of law forces us to do so. Lastly, it should be noted that Zoom servers are located outside of Canada and Zoom stores users’ names and usage data outside of Canada.
Storage of Data
We will store your de-identified data from the survey and interview on a password-protected computer at the University of Regina’s Faculty of Social Work and/or a password-protected computer at The Ohio State University College of Social Work. Your name and other information that could tell others who you are will not be stored. All identifiable survey data (e.g., email address) will be separated from the rest of your data for the raffle and all survey data will then be aggregated. All identifiable interview data will be destroyed after the de-identified transcript has been created. Any remaining file will be destroyed 7 years after completion of the study.
Right to Withdraw
• Your participation is voluntary and you can answer only those questions that you are comfortable with. You may withdraw from the research project for any reason, at any time without explanation or penalty of any sort.
• Whether you choose to participate or not will have no effect on your position [e.g. employment, class standing, access to services] or how you will be treated.
• Should you wish to withdraw during the study or within 7 days of participating in the study, your data will be electronically destroyed.
• Your right to withdraw data from the study will apply until 7 days have passed from your participation. After this date, it is possible that some results have been analyzed, de-identified, written up and/or presented and it may not be possible to withdraw your data.
Follow up
To obtain results from the study, please contact Dr. Andrew Eaton (Principal Investigator) at Andrew.eaton@uregina.ca or visit the University of Regina’s Faculty of Social Work’s website for more information.
Questions or Concerns
Contact the researcher(s) using the information from the Researchers heading above.
This project has been approved on ethical grounds by the University of Regina Research Ethics Board on (insert date). Any questions regarding your rights as a participant may be addressed to the committee at (306-585-4775 or research.ethics@uregina.ca). Out of town participants may call collect.
Consent
Continued or On-going Consent:
If you participate in a follow-up interview, the researcher will review this consent form with you prior to the start of the interview. You will have the opportunity to ask any questions you may have. The researcher will then ask for your oral consent to proceed with the interview. The interview will occur on Zoom at an agreed upon time.
IMPLIED CONSENT FOR SURVEYS: By completing and submitting the questionnaire, YOUR FREE AND INFORMED CONSENT IS IMPLIED and indicates that you understand the above conditions of participation in this study.
Click the link below if you agree to participate in this study:
