Men’s Reactions to Participating in Interpersonal Violence Research

Abstract

This study assessed college men’s reactions immediately following and 2 months after completing self-report measures of interpersonal violence. Results showed that 4.3% of men experienced immediate negative emotional reactions. Greater immediate negative reactions were related to personal benefits to research participation, anticipation of future distress, experiences of childhood physical abuse and psychological abuse/neglect, and physical abuse perpetration either in adolescence or adulthood. Attrition from the study over the 2-month follow-up was predicted by fewer perceived personal benefits to study participation but not by negative emotional reactions. None of the participants who returned for the 2-month follow-up reported experiencing negative emotional reactions to research participation over the interim.

Males' Reactions to Participating in Research on Dating Violence Victimization and Childhood Abuse

“…Moreover, individuals who had been victimized by both childhood abuse and dating violence did not report more negative emotional reactions than non-victims and victims of only one form of aggression. Thus, these findings are consistent with previous research (Edwards et al, in press; Shorey, Cornelius, et al, 2011) and suggest that most victims of interpersonal violence (i.e., childhood abuse and dating violence) do not become emotionally upset due to answering questions about previous victimization experiences. Rather, only a small subset of victims (e.g., childhood sexual abuse victims) may become emotionally upset or perceive drawbacks to study participation (e.g., victims of physical dating violence and childhood sexual abuse).…”

“…In combination with previous research on this topic (Edwards et al, in press; Shorey, Cornelius, et al, 2011), the current study has important implications for both IRBs that approve violence research and for the researchers who conduct such studies. First, this study could be disseminated to IRBs to provide them with empirical information regarding the research reactions to participating in violence research.…”

“…Edwards and colleagues (in press) investigated the research reactions of male college students to questions about childhood abuse and the perpetration of dating violence. Their findings demonstrated that greater immediate negative emotional reactions to research participation were associated with reports of physical abuse and psychological abuse/neglect during childhood.…”

“…Because of the importance of this topic and the sensitive nature of abuse experiences, it is imperative that researchers and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) have empirical information on whether asking questions about childhood abuse and dating violence is emotionally upsetting, detrimental, and/or beneficial to participants. Although preliminary research has begun to examine this topic (Edwards, Gidycz, & Desai, in press; Shorey, Cornelius, & Bell, 2011), continued work is needed in this area. Thus, the current study examined the reactions of male undergraduate students to participating in research on childhood abuse and dating violence victimization experiences.…”

Impact of violence research on participants over time: Helpful, harmful, or neither?

“…Similarly, a small minority of college-aged men who participated in the same study, but who also responded to questions about perpetrating interpersonal violence, reported immediate negative emotional reactions (4.3%), but none at the two-month follow-up. Notably, Edwards et al (2012a) is the first study to examine the impact of reporting perpetration.…”