Passive versus active consent: A case study in school settings

Considerable discussion has occurred over the past few years concerning the issue of passive versus active consent in psychological research involving children and adolescents. Some evaluators believe that passive consent should only be used in very restricted cases while other investigators are more comfortable in using passive consent that utilizes anonymous survey instruments which have minimal risk to the participants. The issue of passive versus active consent was examined in a case study involving youth access to tobacco study. Following the administration of questionnaires, one parent strongly objected to the use of passive consent. This issue was raised on-line via two electronic bulletin boards to solicit opinions concerning the ethics of using passive consent in this study. When these types of controversies occur, there are multiple points of view that need to be examined and considered. Issues involved in this controversy are discussed. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

[1]  T. Beauchamp,et al.  Principles of biomedical ethics , 1991 .

[2]  S. Fortmann,et al.  The relationship between tobacco access and use among adolescents: a four community study. , 1999, Social science & medicine.

[3]  T. Gutkin,et al.  Legal and ethical issues in conducting research on alcohol and drug use with children: a reaction to Havey and Dodd. , 1995, Journal of school psychology.

[4]  J. G. Kelly.  Changing contexts and the field of community psychology , 1990 .

[5]  L. Jason,et al.  Reducing the illegal sales of cigarettes to minors: analysis of alternative enforcement schedules. , 1996, Journal of applied behavior analysis.

[6]  J. Sieber.  Planning ethically responsible research : a guide for students and internal review boards , 1992 .

[7]  D. Kaplan,et al.  Research consent by adolescent minors and institutional review boards. , 1995, The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

[8]  L. Jason,et al.  Long-Term Findings from Woodridge in Reducing Illegal Cigarette Sales to Older Minors , 1996, Evaluation & the health professions.

[9]  D. Singer,et al.  The effect of enforcing tobacco-sales laws on adolescents' access to tobacco and smoking behavior. , 1997, The New England journal of medicine.

[10]  Bandman El.  Protection of human subjects. , 1980, JAMA.

[11]  R. Weisheit,et al.  Sample Bias Resulting from a Requirement for Written Parental Consent , 1983 .

[12]  E. Wagner,et al.  Selection Bias Related To Parental Consent in School-Based Survey Research , 1995 .

[13]  R. Levine.  Adolescents as research subjects without permission of their parents or guardians: ethical considerations. , 1995, The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

[14]  R. Bell,et al.  Impact of a high school condom availability program on sexual attitudes and behaviors. , 1998, Family planning perspectives.

[15]  M. D. Anes,et al.  Assessing Cigarette Sales Rates to Minors , 1992 .

[16]  J. A. Hawes,et al.  An Assessment of Active Versus Passive Methods for Obtaining Parental Consent , 1989, Evaluation review.

[17]  M D Anes,et al.  Active enforcement of cigarette control laws in the prevention of cigarette sales to minors. , 1991, JAMA.

[18]  H. Severson,et al.  Sampling bias due to consent procedures with adolescents. , 1983, Addictive behaviors.

[19]  A. Biglan,et al.  Methodological issues in research on smoking prevention. , 1985, NIDA research monograph.

[20]  L. Jason,et al.  Effects of Enforcement of Youth Access Laws on Smoking Prevalence , 1999, American journal of community psychology.