Participant information consent details

Information about the Child Maltreatment Study for Potential participants

The Australian Child Maltreatment Study is interested in examining the relationship between exposure to adverse experiences in childhood and wellbeing in adulthood. It is an important study because it will be the first to find out how many people were exposed to any form of maltreatment and will provide important information on how to protect children in the future.

We are interested in the responses of all Australians not just those who experienced difficulties in childhood. The study is being led by Professor Ben Mathews at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and has been approved by the QUT Human Research Ethics Committee (approval number 1900000477).

Participation involves a single telephone interview that takes about 25 minutes. The interview will ask about your childhood, including if you were exposed to any maltreatment, and about your current health. The interview will be recorded for quality assurance. Most people even those with difficult childhoods do not find answering the questions difficult, and some participants find it helpful or empowering, but if you experience any distress support will be provided to you. You will not receive any money or compensation for participation. All responses you give will be confidential as far as the law allows. Your answers are not stored with your phone number and we will not ask your name or address details. Confidentiality can only be broken in order to ensure safety if you or someone else is at risk of imminent risk of serious harm. For example, if you report you are currently being abused we may be obligated to report this for your own safety.

You are free to refuse to answer any questions or to withdraw from the study at any time without penalty. If you withdraw from the study any answers you had given will be deleted. You can change your answers, withdraw from the study or request a copy of your answers at any time while the survey is still open by talking to your interviewer or calling the project hotline on 1800 023 040. The survey will be open for one year and will remain open for 2 months after the last interview to allow people to change or withdraw their answers. Once the survey is closed there is no way to link your answers to you in any way. All audio recordings will be deleted once the survey has closed. Once the study is finished your anonymous answers will be combined with those of other participants and can be used in similar studies.

You do not need to decide if you wish to participate now. I can call you back after you have had time to think about it. You can read more about the study on the study website or I can send you information if you like. If you give your email for additional information it will be stored separately from any responses you may subsequently provide and will be destroyed after the project’s completion.

You can also talk to the project manager if you wish by calling 07 3136 7124.

If you have concerns about the ethical conduct of the research project you can contact the QUT Research Ethics Advisory Team on 07 3138 5123 or email humanethics@qut.edu.au.