144 - Policy and Research Workshop. Navigating IRB Approval for Studies of Vulnerable Populations: The Case of Children and Youth

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Abstract

The workshop will include short briefings by panelists and then a focused discussion about the primary challenges that scholars conducting research with children/youth increasingly face in dealing with Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and other institutional gatekeepers. IRBs are sometimes leery of permitting such research on the grounds that children are "vulnerable subjects." These bodies thus (sometimes unintentionally) impede children's participation in research, even that which is ethically constructed, and thereby inhibit the contribution of children's perspectives to knowledge. This discussion is a continuation of a conversation from the 2014 ASA annual meetings. We will also pass around for comment working drafts of three briefing memos prepared in the wake of the 2014 conversation that are intended to guide IRBs, schools and early career researchers. Attendees will then exchange information about their own experiences, common justifications that IRBs have used for their actions, any strategies that have worked and other actions that the scholarly community might take to ameliorate the situation.

Sub Unit

• Research/Policy Workshop

Session Organizer

• Allison Pugh, University of Virginia

Leader

• Allison Pugh, University of Virginia

Co-Leaders

• Amy L. Best, George Mason University

• Ana Campos-Holland, Connecticut College

• Melissa Lynne Swauger, Indiana University-Pennsylvania

• Jessica Karen Taft, University of California-Santa Cruz

• Ingrid E. Castro, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

• Brent Harger, Gettysburg College