Spit for Science (S4S): The Beyond VCU Study
(IRB Protocol # HM13352)
You are invited to participate in a research study. Your participation is completely voluntary. You may decide not to participate in this study. If you do participate, you may withdraw from the study at any time. Your decision not to take part or to withdraw will involve no penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled. Please use the information in this consent to help you determine whether or not you want to take part. Please make sure any questions you might have are answered by contacting spit4science@vcu.edu, prior to completing the consent.
Purpose: Research is an important part of all universities and the Spit for Science project offers a unique opportunity for VCU students and alumni to get involved in the research process. Even beyond VCU, you have an opportunity to contribute through taking part in this new survey that will improve our understanding about how individual predispositions and environmental factors come together to influence substance use and emotional health beyond the college years.
Involvement: Completing a brief survey (~10 minutes) online or by phone that contains questions about your personality and behavior. It covers topics including your living situation; experience of stressful life events; alcohol, nicotine, and drug use; emotional health, including depression and anxiety; and feedback about our surveys.
As a reminder, all survey responses are confidential and we encourage honesty in your responses. If you feel uncomfortable answering any questions, you can select an opt-out option. You will also be asked to provide your current contact information for payment purposes as well as future contact by the Spit for Science registry - this information will not be part of your study data. The investigators who will be analyzing the data from the survey responses will NOT have access to any of your identifying information.
As part of your participation in this study, the data from this survey (including full or partial completions) will be combined with data you have provided on previous Spit for Science surveys, like the Spit for Science: A VCU Student Survey you completed your freshman year or follow up surveys. These surveys collected information about your demographics, personality, mental & physical health, stressful life events, substance use, and related factors. This data will also be combined with genotypic data you may have provided to Spit for Science. Your information may be matched with other databases, agencies, or records for research purposes such as census records, national search databases, or other internet sources. S4S may obtain and use this information, as well as information you share with S4S, to administer the registry (e.g., updating contact info) and to create anonymized or de-identified datasets for research purposes without asking you for additional consent
Risks & Risk Reduction
There are no more than minimal risks involved in this study, however all research participation involve a risk of the loss of privacy or confidentiality. Rigorous data protection practices will be used to protect participant confidentiality and personal information, including removing identifiers from all survey data collected, using only coded IDs to identify participant data, and keeping all data files securely stored.
You can also help protect your information by choosing locations to complete surveys that you are comfortable in, and, when possible, avoiding the use of shared emails and computers or other devices to complete surveys as well as making sure to close your browser when you are done with a survey.
Since the survey will ask questions about stressful events and depression, there is a small chance that you will experience emotional distress and/or concerns about your emotional health while completing the survey. We encourage you to consider this possibility when making a decision about participation. If you are experiencing any challenges in these areas, you can text the word "HOME" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (en espanol: 1-888-628-9454).
Benefits:
There are no direct benefits to you or to others. Information from this survey will be used to better understand factors influencing emotional health beyond college years. In general, we will not give you any individual results from the study.
Compensation: Participants will be compensated with a $20 e-gift card (Amazon, Mastercard, Target - your choice) for completing their survey.
To provide this, we are required by VCU to collect your full name and permanent mailing address. VCU may request this information as documentation for payments made. In the unlikely event you were to receive six hundred or more dollars in a year from VCU for things like research participation, then that money could be considered taxable.
Protections: VCU and the VCU Health System have established secure research databases and computer systems to store information and to help with monitoring and oversight of research. Your information may be kept in these databases but are only accessible to individuals working on this study or authorized individuals who have access for specific research related tasks.
Although results of this research may be presented at meetings or in publications, identifiable personal information about participants will not be disclosed. Personal information about you might be shared with or copied by authorized representatives from the following organizations for the purposes of managing, monitoring and overseeing this study:
- The study Sponsor, representatives of the sponsor and other collaborating organizations
- Representatives of VCU and the VCU Health System
- Officials of the Department of Health and Human Services
Additional Protections: When Spit for Science started it was granted a Certificate of Confidentiality by the National Institutes of Health. This Certificate helps us keep your information private, which means other than a few exceptions (like reports of child abuse or harm) we cannot be compelled to share information from this research with anyone who is not connected to the research.
Questions: If you have questions about your participation or about the study, you may contact Spit for Science at spit4science@vcu.edu. If needed, S4S staff can forward your question to the S4S Principal Investigator.
If you have general questions about your rights as a participant in this or any other research, or if you wish to discuss problems, concerns or questions, to obtain information, or to offer input about research, you may contact:
Virginia Commonwealth University Office of Research
800 East Leigh Street, Suite 3000, Box 980568, Richmond, VA 23298
(804) 827-2157; https://research.vcu.edu/human_research/volunteers.htm
Options provided online are:
- I understand this and want to participate in Spit for Science: The Beyond VCU Study.
- I want to think about it more before making a decision about participation.
- I do not want to participate in this study.
Version: 08/04/2023