Case Study: Dr. Jones has received funding to develop and test an intervention to prevent child abuse among pregnant women in outpatient drug treatment programs. Many current and recovering substance-abusing women are at risk for abusing their children due to difficult life circumstances and lack of personal and financial resources needed to cope with the demands of a young child. Prior research has identified economic and psychological factors associated with child maltreatment, including personal childhood experiences of maltreatment, poor mental and physical health, lack of social support, limited education, and limited knowledge of infant development. Yet, little research has been done to determine whether child abuse rates can be decreased through intervention programs with mothers being treated for substance abuse. Dr. Jones plans to use the Parenting Stress Index and test knowledge of child development to identify mothers who are at risk of abusing their children. Those who are at risk would then be randomized to receive either social work visits alone or the experimental intervention involving counseling, a brief education program on child development, and regular social work visits. After six months control group participants would receive the full experimental treatment. The social work visits would have two purposes: (1) to provide additional resources tailored to the participants' needs and (2) to look for signs of child abuse and neglect in the home. The dependent variables are (1) predictors of risk (i.e., scores on the Parenting Stress Index and knowledge of child development) and (2) signs of child abuse and neglect. Dr. Jones mentions in her proposal to the Institutional Review Board that participants will be told that the study is a services program designed to improve parenting skills but their data might be used in a quality assurance study. She does not want to inform them of the purpose of the study for fear that they would decline to participate out of fear that their children could be taken away and because labeling them as "at risk of abusing their children" is stigmatizing. She argues that the risks of non-disclosure are far outweighed by the potential benefits to children. Case Study Questions:

1. If the IRB approves the researcher's request to withhold the true purpose of the study from the participants, what basic ethical principles within the Belmont Report would be affected? Why?
2. What potential benefits and risks exist for the participants of this research study?
3. If you were a member of the Institutional Review Board , would you vote to approve the researcher's request to withhold the true purpose of the study from the participants in this situation? Why or why not?