Hi Alison,

Certainly, you should adhere to your institution's IRB process. Another consideration might be:

http://www.solutionsirb.com/irb-services-and-pricing/

Have a great day!

--Adrian

Doesn't it depend on the country they are in, and the laws of that land?

You should seek advice from your own University's research ethics committee. If in doubt, you should seek the parental consent for your own protection.

If the members of the 'military families' are actual servicemen and women in the armed forces of that country I think you will need permission from the relevant service authorities themselves as well. It depends on what sort of questions and issues are being discussed. Please don't underestimate the degree of self-insurance, as it were, you need. Better too much than too little.

@tony Maine excellent observations

Alison, an interesting question. The previous responses point to issues I would also direct you to consider. Within the New Zealand context researchers are advised to consider a number of questions:

- any research involving human participants, conducted as a university project, requires approval from a university research ethics committee. I would expect/hope that the committee would ask you about this question you raise, and also to engage with you as a consultative group to support you in developing your research as an ethical project.

- where will the research take place? if in schools, for example, then each school in NZ will have its own policy or direction determined by the board and/or principal. There is no standard process for research in schools. If your locality is within a military environment, then, as others have suggested, you might require approval from that authority. As you noted, some consider age 16 sufficient to give consent, others think age 18, and in some schools, there is a wider flexibility.

- would the Gillick principle be a helpful guide (1985 English House of Lords)? that is, where the capacity of the young person/child to make their own decision when they have sufficient maturity and understanding to weigh the risks and consequences of the decision is considered. Using this principle, age is not a defining feature, but the sense you have of each young person's ability, capacity, maturity to understand what you're asking of them in the research. This places responsibility on your judgement as researcher to clarify and explore how you explain and check their understanding.

- is there a problem with asking for parental consent? this might relate to the nature of the study. Any consent for children to participate should (I imagine) clearly state that their participation is voluntary, and their contribution will be anonymised so they will not be identifiable. If this cannot be guaranteed, then what measures might you have to protect a participant's contribution from breaching internal confidentiality (see Tolich, doi: 10.1023/B:QUAS.0000015546.20441.4a).

I'm interested to read how you proceed. All the best.

In the US, federal law states that age of consent is determined by state law, which for most localities is age 18 (or sometimes age 21). The local state law usually doesn't mention research itself, so one has to extrapolate to find age of consent for research without parental permission via other laws that grant minors greater legal rights for specific reasons, For example, in the US, minors can access certain medical services (reproductive services, mental health, medical care) without parental permission are various ages, starting as low as age 15, so one has to "fit" the type of research into one of the services that the minor could access on their own. Most of the time, this is a complex but not difficult question. Looks like in the UK, the age of consent is age 16, so it appears that 16-17 can consent to research without parental permission (Nuffield Council), so I guess I would start there. Nuffield does say, however, that:

Wherever possible, a decision about taking part, or not taking part, in research should be a shared decision between a child or young person and their parents.

What about children and young people who CAN make their own decision?

We think that: Children and young people who have the ability to understand information about the research and make a choice for themselves should be asked for their consent, not their assent.

Parents should usually be asked for their consent too, so that the decision is made together, as a family. One way of recording this shared decision could be for children and parents to sign a consent form together.

If the law says that a young person has the right to consent to research (16 in the UK) then, legally, only the young person’s consent is needed. However, many young people still prefer to involve their parents, or another trusted person, when they make their decision. Researchers should encourage this.

This seems a bit wishy-washy to me, but does reflect the general bioethical view that minors are a vulnerable group by law, but that older minors may exercise some autonomy without parental involvement too. Usually, you would want to have mature minors consent for themselves, sans parental consent, where the questions you are asking them are sensitive and should remain confidential etc. from parental awareness.

Existing laws in your country will definitely help you. In other jurisdictions the concept of "mature minors" , "age of discernment", "emancipated minor" and "informed assent" are subjects of jurisprudence and legislative enactments. Notwithstanding, your IRB can definitely guide you through. Since you mentioned "military families" it is best that you benchmark military protocols on this matter. Military hospitals' IRBs might be a good place for you to start clearing up your concerns not only on the matter of informed consent but also actual military protocols when military families are subject of research.

Thank you all for your answers.

It is just the family members, so no need for permission/further ethics for serving personnel. I have since gained clarification from my Faculty Director of Ethics who says individuals aged 16+ can give their own informed consent, they do not require parental consent as well, this is only necessary for under 16’s.

Obviously this is for the UK, specifically England and may be different elsewhere. I imagine it will also depend on the cohort you are researching.

Many thanks

Dear Alison,

The first article of the Convention of Children's Rigths says that under 18 years are still children. So, it seems that you need their parents informed consent. However, different countries can have different rules as far as informed consent is related. So, my advice would be the following: Look at what is the case in your country.

Best wishes,

Orlando

Hi Alison,

Certainly, you should adhere to your institution's IRB process. Another consideration might be:

http://www.solutionsirb.com/irb-services-and-pricing/

Have a great day!

--Adrian