The Burden of Research on Trauma for Respondents: A Prospective and Comparative Study on Respondents Evaluations and Predictors

Abstract

The possible burden of participating in trauma research is an important topic for Ethical Committees (EC's), Review Boards (RB's) and researchers. However, to what extent research on trauma is more burdensome than non-trauma research is unknown. Little is known about which factors explain respondents evaluations on the burden: to what extent are they trauma-related or dependent on other factors such as personality and how respondents evaluate research in general? Data of a large probability based multi-wave internet panel, with surveys on politics and values, personality and health in 2009 and 2011, and a survey on trauma in 2012 provided the unique opportunity to address these questions. Results among respondents confronted with these events in the past 2 years (N = 950) showed that questions on trauma were significantly and systematically evaluated as less pleasant (enjoyed less), more difficult, but also stimulated respondents to think about things more than almost all previous non-trauma surveys. Yet, the computed effect sizes indicated that the differences were (very) small and often meaningless. No differences were found between users and non-users of mental services, in contrast to posttraumatic stress symptoms. Evaluations of the burden of previous surveys in 2011 on politics and values, personality and health most strongly, systematically and independently predicted the burden of questions on trauma, and not posttraumatic stress symptoms, event-related coping self-efficacy and personality factors. For instance, multiple linear regression analyses showed that 30% of the variance of how (un)pleasant questions on trauma and life-events were evaluated, was explained by how (un)pleasant the 3 surveys in 2011 were evaluated, in contrast to posttraumatic stress symptoms (not significant) and coping self-efficacy (5%). Findings question why EC's, RB's and researchers should be more critical of the possible burden of trauma research than of the possible burden of other non-trauma research.

Potentially traumatic events have negative and positive effects on loneliness, depending on PTSD-symptom levels: evidence from a population-based prospective comparative study

“…With the login code provided, they could confirm their willingness to participate and immediately start the first interview (i.e. double consent was ensured, for details see [ 43 ]).…”

The predictive value of trauma-related coping self-efficacy for posttraumatic stress symptoms: Differences between treatment-seeking and non–treatment-seeking victims.

“…A possible explanation of this finding may be that younger nontreatment seeking victims were more able to employ supportive networks than older victims. Previous research has shown that social support is an important factor in posttrauma recovery (Brewin, Andrews, & Valentine, 2000;Neria, Nandi, & Galea, 2008;Ozer, Best, Lipsey, & Weiss, 2003;Van der Velden, Bosmans, Bogaerts, & Van Veldhoven, 2014). However, additional research on the relationship between age and employing support is needed.…”

“…We used the following demographic information relevant to our research: age and gender. The 7-item Coping Self-Efficacy Measure (Bosmans, Van der Knaap, & Van der Velden, 2015;Van der Velden et al, 2013) was administered to assess CSE. Respondents rated their perceived efficacy on dealing with different consequences of the PTE on a 7-point scale.…”

“…Of these, 2,137 respondents indicated they had experienced a PTE (e.g., severe accidents, assaults and threats, fires and disasters, severe illness, property crimes, loss of a loved one) in the two years before our study on trauma in 2012. Further details of the LISS panel and the study on trauma can be found in Van der Velden, Bosmans, and Scherpenzeel (2013). Respondents filled out follow-up questionnaires 4 and 8 months after T1 (initial measurement for the comparison group, response T1 ϭ 78.4%, response T2 ϭ 77.7%).…”

From Health to Financial Problems: Multiproblems Among Victims of Partner and Non-Partner Physical Violence, and Matched Nonvictims

“…The questionnaire was approved by a panel of internal and external reviewers of CentERdata. Previous research using the LISS panel revealed that the possible burden of participating in research on trauma was related to perceived burden of other nontrauma studies (such as on political values), and not PTSD symptoms and other PTE-related variables (van der Velden, Bosmans, & Scherpenzeel, 2013). All participants gave their informed consent.…”