Measuring coercion to participate in research within a doubly vulnerable population: initial development of the coercion assessment scale.
Despite many efforts aimed to ensure that research participation is autonomous and not coerced, there exists no reliable and valid measure of perceived coercion for the doubly vulnerable population of substance-abusing offenders. The current study describes the development and initial validation of an instrument measuring perceived coercion to participate in research among substance-abusing offenders. The results indicated that a substantial number of individuals report feeling coerced to participate in the study. In addition, the instrument has adequate levels of internal consistency, a one-dimensional factor structure, and evidence of discriminative validity. This study provides initial support for the instrument's validity and clinical utility.
Treatment Research Institute, Philadelphia, PA 19106-3414, USA. kdugosh@tresearch.org
Karen Leggett
KL
Dugosh
David S
DS
Festinger
Jason R
JR
Croft
Douglas B
DB
Marlowe
D000328:Adult; D003068:Coercion; D003691:Delaware; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000941:ethics; D035846:Law Enforcement / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D018579:Patient Selection / Q000941:ethics*; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011329:Prisoners; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D035862:Vulnerable Populations