Citation

Stiffman A, Brown E, Striley CW, Ostmann E, Chowa G. Ethics Behav. 2005; 15(1): 1-14.

Affiliation

The George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Comobidity and Addictions Center, Washington University, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16127856

Abstract

A study of American Indian youths illustrates competing pressures between research and ethics. A stakeholder-researcher team developed three plans to protect participants. The first allowed participants to skip potentially upsetting interview sections. The second called for participants to skip potentially upsetting interview sections. The second called for participants flagged for abuse or suicidality to receive referrals, emergency 24-hr clinical backup, or both. The third, based on the community's desire to promote service access, included giving participants a list of service resources. Interviewers gave referrals to participants flagged as having mild problems, and reported participants with serious problems to supervisors for clinical backup. Participants seldom chose to skip sections, so data integrity was not compromised. However, participants did have more problems than expected (e.g., 1 in 3 had thought about suicide, 1 in 5 had attempted suicide, and 1 in 4 reported abuse), so service agencies were not equipped to respond. Researchers must accept the competing pressures and find ethically appropriate compromises that will not undermine research integrity.