A Study of the Impact of Informed Consent Procedures on Participant Responses in Trauma-Related Research

Researchers and ethics board members are often concerned about the possibility of adverse reactions to trauma-related research. While research has shown that participants in trauma-related studies rarely experience adverse reactions, mild short-term emotional distress is common. While a number of protections have been suggested to minimize risks for more vulnerable subgroups of participants, no research to date has tested how modifications to informed consent procedures may affect the data collected and participant reactions to the research. One-hundred and forty-five college students were separated into five conditions with different modifications to the informed consent procedures. Participants completed surveys on trauma experience, posttraumatic stress, coping, and reactions to research participation. The results showed no differences among the conditions on all outcome measures. It appears that modifications to informed consent procedures geared toward minimizing risk do not affect the quality of the data collected nor change reactions to participating in trauma-related research.