The ethics of doing research with young drug users (original) (raw)
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In 2011, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) initiated an inquiry to determine whether there is a need for expanded ethical guidance in the form of a discrete guidance document for alcohol and other drug (AOD) research.An issues paper was developed to frame the inquiry.AOD researchers,Human Research Ethics Committees and others were invited to discuss whether there are distinctive ethical issues facing researchers and Human Research Ethics Committees in the AOD setting. Based on the public submissions, the NHMRC recommended that no AOD research-specific guidance is required.The inquiry and the NHMRC decision were not widely publicized, and we feel there is a need for further discussion. In order to do so, we have analysed the public inquiry submissions and described the central themes. Few submissions in the inquiry explicitly agreed AOD research warrants a specific guidance framework. Most were concerned that the NHMRC issues paper unfairly targeted people who use drugs as complex research participants.The inquiry highlights tensions around research governance and ethics review boards dealing with illicit and stigmatised behaviours.While we agree that a specific guidance framework for AOD research is not needed and could potentially be harmful and restrictive,we are concerned that the wholesale rejection of a guidance framework has closed the door to much needed debate.There remains, we argue, a need for alternative strategies and tools to support ethical research, inform and streamline institutional ethics approval, and engage and protect participants. [Olsen A, Mooney-Somers J. Drug Alcohol Rev 2014;33:637–42]
Involving young people in drug and alcohol research
Drugs and Alcohol Today, 2018
Purpose Young people’s involvement should lead to research, and ultimately services, that better reflect young people’s priorities and concerns. Young people with a history of treatment for alcohol and/or drug problems were actively involved in the youth social behaviour and network therapy study. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of that involvement on the study and what was learnt about involving young people in drug and alcohol research. Design/methodology/approach The initial plan was to form a young people’s advisory group (YPAG), but when this proved problematic the study explored alternative approaches in collaboration with researchers and young people. Input from 17 young people informed all key elements of the study. Findings Involvement of young people needs to be dynamic and flexible, with sensitivity to their personal experiences. Engagement with services was crucial both in recruiting young people and supporting their ongoing engagement. This research i...
Doing Research with Vulnerable Populations: The Case of Intravenous Drug Users
Article, 2016
This review article considers ethical concerns when doing research on potentially vulnerable people who inject drugs (PWID) in a Canadian context. The Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans broadly addresses many of the traditional ethical principles of research on vulnerable persons, but does so at the cost of clarity and precision. Vulnerability is contextual rather than absolute. When doing research with vulnerable persons, informed consent should be obtained from an independent person, and comprehension should be checked using questioning. Participants can be vulnerable due to many factors, including addiction, chronic disease, socioeconomic and racial status, and lack of education. The ability of PWID to give informed consent can be compromised by undue influence or intoxication, but existing research shows that neither the mode nor the magnitude of compensation has a significant effect on new rates of drug use. Compensation can also help di...
Rigorous research is crucial to effective work with young people and increasingly youth practitioners need to be able to develop, review and evidence their work using a variety of research and assessment tools. This text equips students and practitioners with a thorough understanding of research design, practice and dissemination, as well as approaches to evidence-based practice. A clear practice framework informs the book, outlining the significance of research to youth work, especially in relation to designing and developing services for young people. Research and Research Methods for Youth Practitioners: •Analyses the research/practitioner role •Explores the ethical context of research in youth work •Offers a thorough analysis of key methodological questions in research in practice •Provides a guide to data collection and analysis •Presents five principal research strategies for youth work: ethnographic work and visual methods; interviewing and evaluation; surveys and evaluation; the use of secondary data and documentary analysis; and researching virtual and online settings •Discusses the implications of research for work with young people as well as its dissemination. Written by experienced researchers and practitioner-researchers, each chapter in this accessible textbook includes an overview, a critical discussion of the pros and cons of the particular method or approach, a case study, a practice-based task, a summary and suggestions for further reading. This textbook is invaluable for student and practising youth workers. It is also a useful reference for other practitioners working with young people.
Exploring Ethical Issues In Youth Research: An Introduction
This special issue is devoted to exploring some of the ethical dilemmas that confront youth researchers. Although scholars who conduct research with other social groups obviously have to engage with important ethical issues in their own work, there are a number of ethical issues that are often seen as specific to young people. As have argued, in general these relate to the contextual factors which differentiate youth research from other forms of social research. These can be identified as: the way in which the lives of many young people are structured by various age-related institutions and contexts and framed by age-related policies; the construction of youth as a critical period for development and transition, which often leads to widespread concern with the monitoring of young people's lives; and the relative powerlessness of young people as a social group within the research process, for reasons which are often specific to their life phase (ibid.).
Bioethics, 2018
When doing research among vulnerable populations, researchers are obliged to protect their subjects from harm. We will argue that traditional ethical guidelines are not sufficient to do this, since they mainly focus on direct harms that can occur: for example, issues around informed consent, fair recruitment and risk/harm analysis. However, research also entails indirect harms that remain largely unnoticed by research ethical committees and the research community. Indirect harms do not occur during data collection, but in the analysis of the data, and how the data is presented to the scientific and wider societal community. Highly stigmatized research subjects, like substance-dependent parents, are especially at risk of encountering indirect harm, because the prejudice against them is so persistent. In this paper we discuss two forms of indirect harm. First, researchers have to be aware how their results will be preceived by society. Even when subjects are presented in an objective ...
When Worlds Collide: Young People, Drugs and ‘Responsible Adulthood’
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 1992
Young people's behaviours which are problematic to parents and therapists are also found in the wider adult community. Here these behaviours are often accepted as normal and legitimate, and as such they may occur even in the lives of these same parents and therapists. This paper considers some of the issues this raises in working with young people and their families.
Responses to ethical challenges in conducting research with Australian adolescents
Australian Journal of Psychology, 2007
Current research ethical guidelines are unclear about the extent to which adolescents can be considered competent to provide informed consent to participate in psychological research. Researchers and human research ethics committees (HRECs) need clearer guidance on when various types of parental consent are required. Some important psychological research on critical public health issues affecting young people is delayed, its methodology compromised, or even does not proceed, because the vagueness in current guidelines lead HRECs to take unduly conservative decisions about the level of risk from research participation, and the competency of mature minors to consent. This paper includes recommendations for researchers and the Australian Psychological Society that could enhance the ethical conduct of research with adolescents.