Informed Consent Form
Title of the study:
Understanding Identity Development in
Individuals who are Attracted to Children
Principal Investigator: Kailey Roche
Affiliation: School of
Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa
Email: Kroch047@uottawa.ca or kaileyroche@protonmail.com
Supervisor:
Dr. Martin L. Lalumière
Affiliation: School of
Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa
Email: martin.lalumiere@uottawa.ca
Collaborator:
Dr. Michael C. Seto
Affiliation:
Forensic Research Unit, Royal Ottawa Health Care Group
Email: Michael.seto@theroyal.ca
Invitation to
Participate: You are invited to participate in the above-mentioned
research study conducted by Kailey Roche, the Principal Investigator, under the
supervision of Dr. Martin Lalumière. This study is being conducted as part of
Kailey’s doctoral dissertation. Dr. Michael Seto is a collaborator of the
project.
Funding for
this study is provided by the Association for the Prevention and Treatment of
Sexual Abuse Pre-Doctoral Research Award.
Purpose of the
Study: The purpose of the study is to better understand how individuals
who are attracted to children develop, understand, and integrate their
attraction into their identity.
Participation: To participate, you must be at least 18 years or older and you must
identify as someone who is attracted to children aged 14 years or younger. You
do not need to be exclusively attracted to children and can also
be attracted to adults. Participation in this study will be first-come
first-serve. Participation will consist of a 1-to-1.5-hour semi-structured
interview via Zoom Healthcare or Element. During the interview, you
will be askedabout your sexual identity (e.g., how you would
describe your sexual identity), how you came to recognize your attraction, how you
believe your identity differs from others who are attracted to children, and
how your attraction presents in your day-to-day life. You will also be asked
basic biographic information (age, ethnicity, sex/gender). The interview will
be audio-recorded (if conducted through audio or video) and transcribed. If the
interview is conducted through chat, the chat transcript will be saved for data
analysis.
Risks: Participation in this study will entail volunteering personal
information and discussing sensitive topics related to your sexuality and this
may cause people to feel some discomfort. There are potential social risks
associated with disclosing your attraction to children (e.g., someone
overhearing your interview) in addition to legal risks if you are currently
involved in a court case and/or being monitored by authorities. Every effort
will be made by the researchers to minimize these risks. You will be allowed to
skip questions that you do not wish to answer. If you experience distress, you can
contact one of the resources provided at the bottom of this form. Further, the
researchers will handle your privacy with utmost care by deleting audio files
after transcription, password protecting files, and keeping all files and
documents in an encrypted folder on a password protected computer.
Benefits: Participation in this study may provide a sense of personal
meaning for contributing to this line of research. These results will provide a
better understanding of how individuals who are attracted to children develop
and understand their sexual identity which could inform treatment targets for
clinicians working with clients for the purpose of improving well-being and
decreasing risk.
Confidentiality
and Privacy The information that you share will
remain strictly confidential. Your identity will be protected, and the contents
of your information will be used only for this dissertation and subsequent
academic publication. To enhance privacy measures, it is recommended that you limit
communications with the Principal Investigator (Kailey) to email or through the
direct messaging function on the relevant online forum. You might also consider
using an email without any identifiable information (i.e., an email name that
does not contain your real name, birth year, etc.) or creating a “throw away”
email for the purpose of this study. Regardless, email addresses will in no
way be linked to interview data. Participant quotations will be used in the
final write up on this study, which will include a dissertation document and
may include presentations at academic conferences and a publication in a
peer-reviewed journal.
While the
researchers will make all reasonable efforts to protect your right to
confidentiality and privacy, they will need to report to the
authorities if there is information to suggest imminent risk of harm
to a child. Even if the researchers do not have access to your full
identification (e.g., you use a false name, email address), they will be
required to provide information that they do have to their local law
enforcement and/or children’s aid society.
You can find more information about mandatory reporting in Ontario,
Canada here: https://www.ontario.ca/page/report-child-abuse-and-neglect
Conservation
of Data: For interviews conducted via
audio/audio-video, audio recordings will be password protected and kept in an
encrypted folder on the Principal Investigator’s computer. All recordings will
be completed using Audacity, since some applications (e.g., Zoom) automatically
record video. Recordings will be password protected and stored on the Principal
Investigator’s password protected computer in an encrypted folder. Audio will
be transcribed within 1 week of the interview. After transcription, audio files
will be destroyed via secure deletion. Transcriptions will be kept in password
protected documents in the same encrypted folder. Biographic information (age,
ethnicity, sex/gender) will be kept in a document separate from transcripts in
the same encrypted folder. It will be impossible to connect biographic
information to the transcripts. Transcripts will be heavily redacted to exclude
this biographic information. Any notes taken by the Principal Investigator
during the interview will also be kept in a password protected document in the
encrypted folder. Data will be kept on a local private, password protected
computer and not uploaded to the cloud. Transcripts and biographic data will
be maintained indefinitely.
One concern participants
may have is that data could be subject to subpoena by law enforcement. The
researchers associated with this study are committed to safeguarding the data
against any potential request or demand for information. The researchers also
expect their affiliated institution would be willing to protect the integrity
of the data as per Article 5.1 of the Tri-Council Policy Statement – 2 (TCPS-2,
2022): “Institutions shall support their researchers in maintaining promises of
confidentiality”).
Compensation: You will be compensated for one Amazon gift card valued at 50.00
CAD for your participation in this study. Gift cards must be sent via email. If you choose to withdraw from the study, you will still
receive this compensation.If you choose not to receive
the compensation, the funds will be donated to a Canadian charity aimed at the protection of children's welfare.
Voluntary Participation: You are under no obligation to participate and if you choose to
participate, you can withdraw from the study at any time and/or refuse to
answer any questions, without suffering any negative consequences. If you
choose to withdraw, all data gathered until the time of withdrawal will be removed
from the dataset and not used in the study. However, please note that after the
interview has been conducted and deidentified, it may be difficult to
cross-reference participants with their interviews to delete them.
If you have
any questions about the study, you may contact the Principal Investigator,
Kailey Roche, or their supervisor, Dr. Martin Lalumiére. If you have any
questions regarding the ethical conduct of this study, you may contact the
Office of Research Ethics and Integrity via email (ethics@uottawa.ca) or telephone (613-562-5800 ext. 5387).
It is
recommended that you save a
copy of this consent form for your records.
Verbal consent
to participate in this study will be obtained at the beginning of the interview.
Mental health
resources
If you are struggling with mental health
difficulties, you may benefit from seeking services from your family physician
or a mental health professional.
If you do not have a family physician or a
mental health provider, please refer to one of the following websites, which
provide lists of mental health services and crises numbers from Canada, the
United States, and across the globe:
Canada Specific: https://cmha.ca/find-help/if-you-are-in-crisis/
United States Specific: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/find-help
International: https://www.iasp.info/crisis-centres-helplines/
Further, B4U-ACT promotes professional
services and resources for self-identified individuals who are sexually
attracted to children, and have a curated list of mental health practitioners
in North America who have experience working with this population:
https://www.b4uact.org/attracted-to-minors/professional-support/
Concerned
about sexual thoughts and/or behaviours involving children?
If you are concerned about your sexual
thoughts and behaviours involving children, consider visiting the Talking for Change website. Talking for Change provides free services
for Canadian individuals who are concerned about their sexual
thoughts/behaviours involving children. They also offer a non-exhaustive list of low cost/free resources available internationally.
All resources have the option to remain anonymous.
Canada: https://talkingforchange.ca/get-help/
Outside of Canada:
https://talkingforchange.ca/resources/
