Re: Question about ethics issue in researching abuse

[Brian Morgan <brianmorgan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Munchausen's by Proxy cases are extremely rare and each case in my experience
has individual distinguishing
features making it possible to narrow down the possible idientities of the
families, especially if the district is known.

If there were say 20 cases then informationa might be abstracted into
categories, not for two cases though I would
have thought.

The suggested example does not seem to fit testing a hypothesis but is more of
a two fold case study which
sadly is what much of MBP 'research' has been about, so it is claimed.

Brian Morgan





"Tran, Mary@DSS" wrote:

> The purpose of a dissertation is to demonstrate mastery of research
> methodology and to contribute to the overall body of knowledge of your
> profession. These require abstraction from specific cases to general
> patterns. The client information would normally be abstracted to categories
> relevant to the theory/hypotheses you are testing. Why would there be any
> identifying information about specific clients included in the final paper?
>
> Mary Nelson Tran, PhD, MPH
> Chief, Data Analysis and Publications Branch
> Research and Development Division
> California Department of Social Services
> 744 P Street, Room 1250, MS 12-84
> Sacramento, CA 95814
> 916-653-3850
> 916-653-4880 (fax)
> Mary.Tran@dss.ca.gov
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Taube [mailto:dtaube@alliant.edu]
> Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 10:36 AM
> To: Child Maltreatment Researchers
> Subject: Question about ethics issue in researching abuse
>
> Dear List members,
>
> I am an IRB chair, and have come up against an interesting question that I
> thought some of you might have had occasion to have previously addressed. We
> have a student interested in conducting qualitative research with two adults
> who were identified as being victims of Munchausens by Proxy.  Her research
> would involve using standardized psychological tests and interviews with
> these adults--one of whom has apparently been significantly affected by
> his/her experience, and the other of whom has experienced less signifanct
> effects. One of the study's aims is to clarify which areas of functioning
> are most affected. Aside from the issue of the utility and design of this
> study, the committee members (as well as the student) are concerned about
> one risk in particular. That is,  is there a way to prevent family members
> (or the participants, for that matter) from obtaining the full published
> dissertation, with its description of the testing data and potential for
> misinterpretation or mi!
> suse? We've recommended that, at a minimum, at Certificate of
> Confidentiality be obtained by the student to protect the raw, identifiable
> data, and that she, of course disguise the participants as much as possible.
> And with our typical request that researchers offer a summary of results to
> participants upon the completion of the study, we believe it possible to
> provide results in a manner respectful of participants sensitivities.
> Nonetheless, it would be relatively easy to identify the study and obtain a
> copy of the dissertation--as the student must inform participants about her
> status as a student at our school, and dissertations are available in our
> library (not to mention DAI).
>
> If you have any suggestions about how we might address this risk so the
> student could adequately protect these participants, it would be
> appreciated.
>
> Dan Taube
> AIU-California School of Professional Psychology
> 1005 Atlantic Ave.
> Alameda, CA 94501
> 510-523-2300 ext. 128
> dtaube@alliant.edu
>
>
>