Participants will be asked to complete questionnaires that ask about your thoughts, feelings, and experiences in your life, marriage, and Army career. Your participation is voluntary and you can withdraw from the study at any time. The questions we ask may encourage you to think about personal issues in your life. This is usually a positive experience, though someone experiencing turmoil in personal matters could feel that more intensely by answering the questions. For most people, such self-exploration is beneficial.
CONFIDENTIALITY OF RECORDS: Only the researchers conducting this study will have access to the records from this study. No information will be shared with your chain of command. Information gained from this study may be used as part of a scientific publication, but you will in no way be personally identified. Further, we have tried to avoid asking you any very sensitive questions because we want you to feel free to respond to all the questions. If, however, there is a question that you’d really rather not answer, you should feel free to skip the question. Yet, please understand that your feedback is the most valuable when it is complete. Several steps have been taken to insure that the answers you provide will be kept confidential and private. You will NOT put your name or other identifying information on your questionnaires. The questionnaires will be marked with only a unique ID number for administrative purposes, such as sending out payments for questionnaires. We ask that you complete your questionnaire privately and separately from your spouse.
For questionnaires completed online: Your data is collected at a secure server and your responses are stored separately from information identifying you that we use to contact you.
For questionnaires completed on paper: After you complete your questionnaires, you will immediately seal them and then they will be mailed directly to the University of Denver. Your envelopes will not be opened by anyone other than the research team at the University of Denver. Paper questionnaires are kept in a locked room in our locked facilities, and only key study personnel will have access to the information. Signed informed consents will be kept separately in a secure locked cabinet. A data base with contact and tracking information for participants is kept separately from questionnaire data. Only study personnel have access to this.
Any information provided to the U.S. Army regarding study findings will be reported in summaries, where your responses will be combined with those of hundreds of other respondents. It will NOT be possible to identify any individual from the information that the University of Denver provides to the U.S. Army.
There are some exceptions to the promise of confidentiality. If information is revealed concerning suicide, homicide, or child abuse and neglect, it may be required by law that this be reported to the proper authorities. In addition, should any information contained in this study be the subject of a court order or lawful subpoena, the University of Denver may not be able to avoid compliance with the order or subpoena.
Dr. Scott Stanley, research professor of psychology and co-director of the Center for Marital and Family Studies at the University of Denver is the supervisor of the Army Marriage Project. Should you have any questions or need more information, please feel free to contact Dr. Stanley at (303) 871-3062.
This study was approved by the University of Denver’s Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research on 10-1-09. If you have any concerns or complaints about how you were treated during the study, please contact Susan Sadler, Chair, Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects at the University of Denver, at 303-871-3454, or Sylk Sotto-Santiago, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at 303-871-4052 or write to either at the University of Denver, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, 2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-2121.
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