To date, most school-based research has used passive parental consent. However, the Family
Privacy Protection Act of 1995 aims to change these requirements The proposed legislation
requires written parental consent if minors are to be asked "sensitive" guestions as part of any
program or activity funded in whole or in part by the federal government. This act is representative of a growing trend toward restricting research involving minors Whether or not this
act is passed by Congress, two lines of concern are highlighted by this legislation The first deals
with ethical issues surrounding consent procedures. For instance, are parental rights compromised when active consent is not mandated? A second line of inquiry pertains to the effect of
active consent procedures on response rates and sample bias. In this article, the authors discuss
ethical issues surrounding passive and active consent procedures and then report response rates
from two projects in which active consent procedures were implemented
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