This article reports results from a student survey fielded using an experimental design with 14 Kentucky school districts. Seven of the 14 districts were randomly assigned to implement the survey with active consent procedures; the other seven districts implemented the survey with passive consent procedures. We used our experimental design to investigate the impact of consent procedures on (a) participation rates, (b) demographic characteristic of the survey samples, and (c) estimates of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (ATOD) use. We found that the use of active consent procedures resulted in reduced response rates, underrepresentation of male students and older students, and lower lifetime and past 30-day prevalence rates for most drugs and for most antisocial behaviors. Methodological implications of these findings are discussed along with directions for further research.
Arthur, M., D. Hawkins, and R. Catalano, eds. 1998. Student survey of risk and protective factors and prevalence of alcohol, tobacco, & other drug use. Prepared by Developmental Research and Programs, Inc., Seattle, for the Diffusion Consortium Project.
2.
Baker, J., J. Yardley, and K. McCaul.2001. Characteristics of responding, nonresponding, and refusing parents in an adolescent lifestyle choice study. Evaluation Review25:605-18.
3.
Cohen, J.1988. Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences . 2nd ed. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
4.
Dent, C., J. Galaif, S. Sussman, A. Stacy, D. Burtun, and B. Flay.1993. Demographic, psychosocial, and behavioral differences in samples of actively and passively consented adolescents. Addictive Behaviors18:51-6.
5.
Department of Health and Human Services.1991 . 45CFR46. Accessed from http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.htm .
6.
Dillman, D.2000. Mail and internet surveys: the tailored design method . 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
7.
Eaton, D.K., R. Lowry, N.D.Brener, J. A. Grunbaum, and L. Kann.2004. Passive vs. active parental permission in school-based survey research. Evaluation Review28:564-77.
8.
Ellickson, P., and J. Hawes.1989. An assessment of active versus passive methods of obtaining parental consent. Evaluation Review13:45-55.
9.
Esbensen, F., M. Miller, T. Taylor, N. He, and A. Freng.1999. Differential attrition rates and active parental consent. Evaluation Review23:316-35.
10.
Fendrich, M., and T. Johnson.2001. Examining prevalence differences in three national surveys: impact of consent procedures, mode, and editing rules . Journal of Drug Issues31:615-42.
11.
Freedman, D.A.2008. Randomization does not justify logistic regression . Statistical Science23:237-49.
12.
Groves, R.M.2006. Nonresponse rates and nonresponse bias in household surveys . Public Opinion Quarterly70:646-75.
13.
Groves, R.M., S. Presser, and S. Dipko.2004. The role of topic interest in survey participation decisions. Public Opinion Quarterly68:2-31.
14.
Hawkins, J.D., R.F. Catalano, and J.Y. Miller.1992. Risk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: Implications for substance abuse prevention. Psychological Bulletin112:64-105.
15.
Henry, K., E. Smith, and A. Hopkins.2002. The effect of active parental consent on the ability to generalize the results of an alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention trial to rural adolescents. Evaluation Review26:645-55.
16.
Hollmann, C., and J. McNamara.1999. Considerations in the use of active and passive parental consent procedures. Journal of Psychology133:141-56.
17.
Ji, P.Y., Pokorny, S.B., and Jason, L.A.2004. Factors influencing middle and high schools' active parental consent return rates. Evaluation Review28 (6): 578-591.
18.
Johnson, K., D. Bryant, E. Rockwell, M. Moore, B. Straub, P. Cummings, and C. Wilson.1999. Obtaining active parental consent for evaluation research: A case study. American Journal of Evaluation20:239-49.
19.
Kearney, K., A. Hopkins, A. Mauss, and R. Weisheit.1983. Sample bias resulting from a requirement for written parental consent. Public Opinion Quarterly47:96-102.
20.
Keeter, S., C. Miller, A. Kohut, R. Groves, and S. Presser.2000. Consequences of reducing nonresponse in a national telephone survey. Public Opinion Quarterly64:125-48.
21.
Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J., C. Arata, N. O'Brien, D. Bowers, and J. Kilbert.2006. Sensitive research with adolescents: just how upsetting are self-report surveys anyway? Violence and Victims21:425-44.
22.
Leakey, T., K. Lunde, K. Koga, and K. Glanz.2004. Written parental consent and the use of incentives in a youth smoking prevention trial: A case study from project SPLASH. American Journal of Evaluation25:509-23.
23.
Lueptow, L., S. Mueller, R. Hammes, and L. Master.1977. The impact of informed consent regulations on response rate and response bias. Sociological Methods and Research6:183-204.
24.
MacGregor, E., and J. McNamara.1995. Comparison of return procedures involving mailed versus student delivered parental consent forms. Psychological Reports77:1113-4.
25.
Mammel, K., and Kaplan, D.1995. Research consent by adolescent minors and institutional review boards. Journal of Adolescent Health17:323-30.
26.
Murray, D.M.1998. Design and analysis of group-randomized trials . New York, NY: Oxford University Press Inc.
27.
Pokorny, S., L. Jason, M. Schoeny, S. Townsend, and C. Curie.2001. Do participation rates change when active consent procedures replace passive consent? Evaluation Review25:567-80.
28.
Schuster, M., R. Bell, S. Berry, and D. Kanouse.1998. Impact of a high school condom availability program on sexual attitudes and behaviors. Family Planning Perspectives30:67-72, 88.
29.
Severson, H., and D. Ary.1984. Sampling bias due to consent procedures with adolescents. Addictive Behaviors8:433-7.
30.
Severson, H., and A. Biglan.1989. Rationale for the use of passive consent in smoking prevention research: politics, policy, and pragmatics. Preventive Medicine18:267-79.
31.
Small, D., T. TenHave, and P. Rosenbaum.2008. Randomization inference in a group-randomized trial of treatments for depression: covariate adjustment, noncompliance, and quantile effects. Journal of the American Statistical Association103:271-9.
32.
Thompson, T.1984. A comparison of methods of increasing parental consent rates in social research. Public Opinion Quarterly48:779-87.
33.
Unger, J.B., Gallaher, P.G., Palmer, P.H., Baezconde-Garbanati, L., Trinidad, D.R., Cen, S., and Johnson, C.A.2004. No news is bad news: characteristics of adolescents who provide neither parental consent nor refusal for participation in school-based survey research. Evaluation Review28 (1): 52-63.
34.
White, V., D. Hill, and Y. Effendi.2004. How does active parental consent influence the findings of drug use surveys in schools? Evaluation Review28:246-60.
