Prescreening Adolescents for Stress ¹

Problem: Researchers wanted to study pet bereavement among adolescents. An initial problem was to obtain a sample of participants who had experienced the death of a pet within the year previous to the study.

A Solution: "Young people were recruited from local 4-H and Boy Scout organizations, 9th- and 10th-grade classes at area high schools and referrals from friends and colleagues (none of the potential participants was known to any of the investigators, however). The senior investigator spoke privately to each about conditions for participation, invited him or her to join the study, and administered a prescreening instrument.

"To avoid recording spuriously high levels of grief following pet loss, it was important to minimize the effects of other stressful life events. For this reason, each potential participant was screened with the modified Adolescent Life Change Event Scale (ALCES). The ALCES is a 24-item, self-report measure of stress that has been validated for individuals ranging in age from 12 to 29 years... Items consist of a rank-order listing of potential life changes that are known to be stressful (pet loss is ranked 11th). Anyone who marked any item more stressful than pet loss was excluded from participation in the study.

"After the prescreening, those who remained in the study were given the instrument package and provided with directions for completing it. They were also provided with consent forms to be signed by a parent or guardian and stamped, addressed envelopes for returning completed questionnaires."

Your Opinions:

1. In your opinion, is there any potential for harm by asking adolescents questions about the death of a pet? Explain.

2. Was it ethical to administer the ALCES prior to obtaining parental consent? Explain.

3 . Would it be a good idea to get parental consent before distributing the "instrument package"? Explain.