Approaches to consent in public health research in secondary schools
Objectives We assess different approaches to seeking consent in research in secondary schools.Design We review evidence on seeking active versus passive parent/carer consent on participant response rates and profiles. We explore the legal and regulatory requirements governing student and parent/care...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2023-06-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open |
| Online Access: | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/6/e070277.full |
| _version_ | 1827175462524157952 |
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| author | Russell M Viner Tamsin Ford Chris Bonell Neil Humphrey Ilina Singh |
| author_facet | Russell M Viner Tamsin Ford Chris Bonell Neil Humphrey Ilina Singh |
| author_sort | Russell M Viner |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objectives We assess different approaches to seeking consent in research in secondary schools.Design We review evidence on seeking active versus passive parent/carer consent on participant response rates and profiles. We explore the legal and regulatory requirements governing student and parent/carer consent in the UK.Results Evidence demonstrates that requiring parent/carer active consent reduces response rates and introduces selection biases, which impact the rigour of research and hence its usefulness for assessing young people’s needs. There is no evidence on the impacts of seeking active versus passive student consent but this is likely to be marginal when researchers are directly in communication with students in schools. There is no legal requirement to seek active parent/carer consent for children’s involvement in research on non-medicinal intervention or observational studies. Such research is instead covered by common law, which indicates that it is acceptable to seek students’ own active consent when they are judged competent. General data protection regulation legislation does not change this. It is generally accepted that most secondary school students age 11+ are competent to provide their own consent for interventions though this should be assessed individually.Conclusion Allowing parent/carer opt-out rights recognises their autonomy while giving primacy to student autonomy. In the case of intervention research, most interventions are delivered at the level of the school so consent can only practically be sought from head teachers. Where interventions are individually targeted, seeking student active consent for these should be considered where feasible. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:11:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1f43b0e40eef4603b91e06d711d2f97c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2044-6055 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-03-21T04:11:50Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-1f43b0e40eef4603b91e06d711d2f97c2024-07-29T02:55:09ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552023-06-0113610.1136/bmjopen-2022-070277Approaches to consent in public health research in secondary schoolsRussell M Viner0Tamsin Ford1Chris Bonell2Neil Humphrey3Ilina Singh41 Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UKDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UKPublic Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UKManchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK2 Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities, University of Oxford, Oxford, UKObjectives We assess different approaches to seeking consent in research in secondary schools.Design We review evidence on seeking active versus passive parent/carer consent on participant response rates and profiles. We explore the legal and regulatory requirements governing student and parent/carer consent in the UK.Results Evidence demonstrates that requiring parent/carer active consent reduces response rates and introduces selection biases, which impact the rigour of research and hence its usefulness for assessing young people’s needs. There is no evidence on the impacts of seeking active versus passive student consent but this is likely to be marginal when researchers are directly in communication with students in schools. There is no legal requirement to seek active parent/carer consent for children’s involvement in research on non-medicinal intervention or observational studies. Such research is instead covered by common law, which indicates that it is acceptable to seek students’ own active consent when they are judged competent. General data protection regulation legislation does not change this. It is generally accepted that most secondary school students age 11+ are competent to provide their own consent for interventions though this should be assessed individually.Conclusion Allowing parent/carer opt-out rights recognises their autonomy while giving primacy to student autonomy. In the case of intervention research, most interventions are delivered at the level of the school so consent can only practically be sought from head teachers. Where interventions are individually targeted, seeking student active consent for these should be considered where feasible.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/6/e070277.full |
| spellingShingle | Russell M Viner Tamsin Ford Chris Bonell Neil Humphrey Ilina Singh Approaches to consent in public health research in secondary schools BMJ Open |
| title | Approaches to consent in public health research in secondary schools |
| title_full | Approaches to consent in public health research in secondary schools |
| title_fullStr | Approaches to consent in public health research in secondary schools |
| title_full_unstemmed | Approaches to consent in public health research in secondary schools |
| title_short | Approaches to consent in public health research in secondary schools |
| title_sort | approaches to consent in public health research in secondary schools |
| url | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/6/e070277.full |
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