scholarly journals Resolving ethical challenges when researching with minority and vulnerable populations: LGBTIQ victims of violence, harassment and bullying

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A Roffee ◽  
Andrea Waling
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Minority Populations ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Ethical Research ◽  
Victims Of Violence ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Research Frameworks ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

This article provides an analysis of the issues and ethical challenges faced in a study with LGBTIQ student participants concerning their experiences of violence, harassment and bullying in tertiary settings. The authors detail the ethical challenges behind the development of the project, and around conducting research with a minority and vulnerable population. The article illustrates how the utilization of feminist and queer theory has impacted the process of conducting ethical research, including approaches to recruitment and participant autonomy. The dilemmas of confidentiality within a self-labelled and easily identifiable population are resolved. Further, unexpected challenges and risks to participant safety created through adherence to institutional ethical research frameworks are rectified. Importantly, the authors seek to avoid revictimization of participants and to instead empower students in their responses to violence, harassment and bullying that they may have experienced. The authors point to utilization of theoretical foundations and continual reflexive improvement as elements of best practice for those seeking to research minority populations, and in projects marked by the participation of those deemed vulnerable and high-risk.

Research in Adults with Diminished Capacity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neal Dickert ◽  
Emily Largent
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Decisional Capacity ◽  
Ethical Research ◽  
Diminished Capacity ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Surrogate Consent

Informed consent is often identified as a condition of ethical research. Therefore, ethical challenges arise when conducting research with adults who lack the capacity to provide informed consent. In this chapter, the authors consider these challenges using two principal cases: adults with dementia and adults with acute, emergent health conditions. As this pair of cases shows, decisional capacity can be “diminished” in many ways, and a number of strategies are available to address diminished capacity. In this chapter, the authors highlight surrogate consent and the partial-involvement strategies of assent and dissent and note additional protections afforded to these vulnerable populations.

Pandemic Disease, Public Health, and Ethics

2019 ◽  
pp. 796-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxwell Smith ◽  
Ross Upshur
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Pandemic Preparedness ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Ethical Frameworks ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
The Face ◽  
Conducting Research

Infectious disease pandemics raise significant and novel ethical challenges to the organization and practice of public health. This chapter provides an overview of the salient ethical issues involved in preparing for and responding to pandemic disease, including those arising from deploying restrictive public health measures to contain and curb the spread of disease (e.g., isolation and quarantine), setting priorities for the allocation of scarce resources, health care workers’ duty to care in the face of heightened risk of infection, conducting research during pandemics, and the global governance of preventing and responding to pandemic disease. It also outlines ethical guidance from prominent ethical frameworks that have been developed to address these ethical issues and concludes by discussing some pressing challenges that must be addressed if ethical reflection is to make a meaningful difference in pandemic preparedness and response.

scholarly journals Conducting epigenetics research with refugees and asylum seekers: attending to the ethical challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Faten Taki ◽  
Inmaculada de Melo-Martin
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Healthcare Barriers ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Disease States ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers ◽  
Epigenetic Research

AbstractAn increase in global violence has forced the displacement of more than 70 million people, including 26 million refugees and 3.5 asylum seekers. Refugees and asylum seekers face serious socioeconomic and healthcare barriers and are therefore particularly vulnerable to physical and mental health risks, which are sometimes exacerbated by immigration policies and local social discriminations. Calls for a strong evidence base for humanitarian action have encouraged conducting research to address the barriers and needs of refugees and asylum seekers. Given the role of epigenetics factors to mediate the effect of psychological and environmental exposures, epigenetic modifications have been used as biomarkers for life adversity and disease states. Therefore, epigenetic research can be potentially beneficial to address some of the issues associated with refugees and asylum seekers. Here, we review the value of previous and ongoing epigenetic studies with traumatized populations, explore some of the ethical challenges associated with epigenetic research with refugees and asylees and offer suggestions to address or mitigate some of these challenges. Researchers have an ethical responsibility to implement strategies to minimize the harms and maximize the short and long-term benefits to refugee and asylee participants.

Conducting Research in Difficult, Dangerous, and/or Vulnerable Contexts: Messy Narratives From the Field

2021 ◽  
pp. 089331892110587
Author(s):  
Brittany L. Peterson ◽  
Oana B. Albu ◽  
Kirsten Foot ◽  
Darvelle Hutchins ◽  
Jack Qiu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Communication ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Governmental Agencies ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Conducting Research

Organizational communication scholars have historically conducted research in large for-profit businesses, governmental agencies, and a few high-profile nonprofits/NGOs—all of which are relatively easy to access and presumably “safe” to study. It is largely unsurprising, then, that limited scholarship addresses the challenges associated with conducting research in less standard contexts that are often perceived to be difficult, dangerous, and/or vulnerable (DDV). In this forum, we offer lived stories—unfiltered messy narratives—to demystify three core ethical challenges inherent in conducting research of this nature and share how we (imperfectly) navigated them. In addition, we offer practical strategies for conducting research in DDV contexts. Taken together, our overall collective aim is to successfully prepare future scholars to conduct research projects in DDV contexts.

Conducting Ethical Research

2015 ◽  
pp. 107-133
Author(s):  
Sunila Lobo
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Formal Training ◽  
Rapid Progress ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Ethical Research ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The 1960S

Since the 1960s, social scientists have explored the ethics of conducting research. However, there is little guidance in conducting ethical research in the more conservative societies of the Middle East. The rapid progress of technology has meant that these societies have been become increasingly networked, even the most restrictive ones, with a growing use of mobile devices. The purpose of the chapter is to describe the reflection on the research conducted on mobile consumption practices of female Saudi youth. The conduct of the research is based on both the researcher's formal training and also, intuitively negotiated, in practice, as she navigated this particularly sensitive context. The influence of the interplay between culture and gender emerges as the researcher reflects on the research conducted. The consideration of the ethics of the research continues post research completion.

Developing Social Media Policies

2015 ◽  
pp. 210-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Amanda Jones
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
High Risk Patient ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Community Clinic ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
Practice Models

Nonprofit organizations engaged in social media outreach face numerous risks. One way to minimize risk is to develop policies and procedures. Social media policies have gained popularity in recent years but little research has been conducted about their effectiveness. As a result, nonprofit organizations often develop social media policies without the guidance of best practice models. The Vista Community Clinic responded to this challenge by developing a Technology Outreach Committee. The committee, which includes employees from a variety of programs and departments, meets regularly to discuss strategies, identify challenges, and brainstorm solutions. As this case documents, a team learning approach allows the organization to incorporate diverse skillsets, manage the creative tension between a somewhat bureaucratic organization and a highly fluid social media environment, minimize risks in high risk patient/client outreach, and garner employee confidence in the policy.

Rigor, Relevance and Research Paradigms

2011 ◽  
pp. 117-132
Author(s):  
John C. Beachboard
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Science Field ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Research Meeting ◽  
Social Science Field ◽  
Research Frameworks ◽  
Intellectual Journey

A practitioner leaves behind the world of failed multimillion-dollar information systems projects to seek solutions in academe. In making the transition from IS practitioner to IS researcher, the author encounters two fundamental tensions regarding the conduct of social science. The first tension concerns the challenge of conducting research meeting the criteria of scientific rigor while addressing issues relevant to practitioners. The second tension centers on the debate concerning the suitability of positivist and non-positivist approaches to research in the social sciences. A review of the literature discussing these tensions led the author to the observation that the two tensions appear to be related. This insight led to the investigation of multi-paradigmatic research frameworks as a means of reconciling these related tensions. The essay provides a personalized account regarding the author’s motivation for conducting practitioner-oriented research, the intellectual journey made through the literature to acquire tools of the social science field, and his observations concerning the advantages of multi-paradigmatic research in the IS field.

The ethics of pain control in infants and children

2013 ◽  
pp. 661-668
Author(s):  
Gary A. Walco ◽  
Maureen C. Kelley
Keyword(s):  
Pain Treatment ◽  
Infants And Children ◽  
Standards Of Care ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Placebo Control ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Cultural Considerations ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Control Designs ◽  
In Infants And Children

In this chapter we will offer a way of framing the ethical balance of competing considerations in pain treatment in infants and children, distinguishing between analyses of harms and benefits, from other more pragmatic, contextual, and cultural considerations. We begin with the ethical foundations behind good pain management for any patient, and especially children: the ethical duty to prevent harm by alleviating pain or suffering, and the importance of assuring equal access to pain treatment. Historically, the driving ethical concern in paediatric pain has been the pervasive undertreatment of pain in children. In the second and main section of the chapter, we offer a detailed analysis of the practical ethical challenges involved in weighing the harms and benefits of pain relief against untreated or undertreated pain. In the third section, we will discuss the more specific concerns of socioeconomic and cultural determinants to paediatric pain treatment. Finally, in the last section, we will address concerns in conducting research on pain interventions in infants and children, as clearly many of the modal methodologies traditionally used for clinical trials in adults (e.g. placebo control designs) pose unjustifiable risk to younger individuals. We will also discuss the importance of considering local context as it impacts standards of care to guide ethical paediatric pain research.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document