Original articleThe Role of Parental Consent in Adolescent Substance Use Research
Section snippets
Methods
This study was a secondary analysis of combined data from two studies of adolescent substance use that recruited participants from the same adolescent clinic at Children’s Hospital Boston. Study 1 waived parental consent, whereas Study 2 required parental consent. Initially, the Children’s Hospital Boston Committee on Clinical Investigations (institutional review board) waived the requirement for parental consent for Study 2. However, during the process of peer review of the National Institutes
Recruitment and demographic differences
Of 670 eligible patients, 538 (80.3%) agreed to participate in Study 1, compared with 168 of 411 (40.9%) of eligible participants in Study 2. Accordingly, the refusal rate in Study 1, where consent was waived, was 19.7% and in Study 2, where consent was required, it was 59.1% (p < .0001). In Study 1, reasons most commonly cited for refusing included “not enough time,” “not interested,” or “came with a parent.” Reasons for refusal in Study 2 were similar and are summarized in Figure 1 with the
Discussion
This study suggests that parental consent may negatively affect study participation in adolescent health risk behavior research, and that it may result in substantial self-selection bias towards lower substance abuse risk reporting. The study that required parental consent had a much higher refusal rate and significantly lower CRAFFT scores, meaning less substance-related risk. The study that required parental consent also had a significantly higher proportion of black and Hispanic participants.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the CeASAR Clinical Research Staff, Noelle Huntington, Ph.D., and Eugenia Chan, M.D., M.P.H. This study was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (grant R21 AA13029; co-sponsor: the Fetzer Institute). Other support provided by a grant (to N.R.) and grant 5T20MC000-11-06 (J.R.K.) from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau; by grant K07 AA013280 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (J.R.K.); grant R01 AA12165 (co-sponsor:
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