Developing an index to measure the voluntariness of consent to research

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2014

Abstract

The goals of the current study were to expand the content domain and further validate the Coercion Assessment Scale (CAS), a measure of perceived coercion for criminally involved substance abusers being recruited into research. Unlike the few existing measures of this construct, the CAS identifies specific external sources of pressure that may influence one's decision to participate. In Phase 1, we conducted focus groups with criminal justice clients and stakeholders to expand the instrument by identifying additional sources of pressure. In Phase 2, we evaluated the expanded measure (i.e., endorsement rates, reliability, validity) in an ongoing research trial. Results identified new sources of pressure and provided evidence supporting the CAS's utility and reliability over time as well as convergent and discriminative validity.

Publication Title

Journal of empirical research on human research ethics : JERHRE

Volume

9

Issue

4

First Page

60

Last Page

70

Comments

This article was published in Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, Volume 9, Issue 4, Pages 60-70.

The published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1556264614544100.

Copyright © 2014.

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