Participant Consent - 4-H Youth Development

Understanding The Legalities Of Conducting Evaluations For Adult And Youth Programs

The University of Arkansas Institutional Review Board (IRB) is required by law to review all research and evaluations conducted by university personnel who use human subjects. In other words, whenever we ask people to be involved in our evaluations we need to have the evaluation procedures and surveys, interviews, etc., approved by the IRB. This is to assure that people are not being asked inappropriate questions and that the process is ethical. It is also there to protect you and your program in the event that someone doesn't like some part of the evaluation.

The U of A Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Life Skills Evaluation has been approved by the U of A IRB. The approval included the following requirements that must be followed:

The Notice of Passive Consent (see below) must be sent to all parents whose children under 18 years of age may be asked to participate in the evaluation of your program. We suggest that you send a copy of this notice along with your program materials when youth enter your program. You only need to give the notice to parents once a year. It is then their responsibility to contact you if they do not want their child to participate in the evaluation. If you do not hear from the parents, then their son or daughter can participate, if the youth so desires.

The paragraph at the top of the customized evaluation form explains the participants' rights in completing the evaluation. This information must remain on your evaluation form. You need to read it with the participants (both youth and adult) who will be completing the evaluation.

Written Notice Of Passive Consent (for youth participants):

As a participant in the (name of the program) your son or daughter may be asked to help with the evaluation of the program. At the end of each program or program year, we conduct an evaluation to tell us how well the program is working. Your son or daughter may be asked to complete a written survey about what he or she may have learned from participating in the program. We estimate that it will take the youth participants approximately 10 minutes to complete the survey.

Youths are not required to participate in the evaluation. If your son or daughter decides that he or she does not wish to participate, it will not affect his or her participation in this or future University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension programs. If your son or daughter does not want to answer some questions on the survey, that is okay. The survey responses will be anonymous, and your son's or daughter's responses will not be identified in any way.

If you do not want your son or daughter to participate in the evaluation of (name of program), please contact (name of local program staff member) at (contact information) before your child begins attending the program. If you have any questions about the evaluation, you can contact Brian Helms at (501) 671-2289 or the University of Arkansas Institutional Review Board at (479) 575-3845.

University of Arkansas • Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
2301 South University Avenue
Little Rock, Arkansas 72204 • USA
Phone (501) 671-2000 • Fax (501) 671-2209

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