title: Investigating the effects of trauma-related research on well-being.
abstract: Using an experimental design, we investigated the impact of participation in trauma-related research on well-being in a sample of 219 higher education students. We created five conditions that exposed participants to questions about life events. A sixth condition represented a control condition. Exposure conditions varied according to whether they contained yes/no questions about events that entailed stress, stigma, trauma, or sexual violation. We operationalized well-being by measuring positive and negative affect, state anxiety, and positive reactions to research. Across exposure conditions, participants reported low levels of negative affect and generally positive reactions immediately after participation. The most negative and least positive responses followed exposure conditions that contained questions about stressful events and sexual violation. We discuss implications of our findings for ethics review board practices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia 30302-5010, USA. scook@gsu.edu
authors.forename: Sarah L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: Doyanne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Darnell
authors.forename: Elizabeth R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Anthony
authors.forename: Chantal Poister
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Tusher
authors.forename: Lindsey
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zimmerman
authors.forename: Dulamdary
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Enkhtor
authors.forename: Tracy N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Hipp
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004644:Emotions; D032984:Ethics, Research; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult