'See you on Zoom' - Virtual Contacts and Stress |
Participant Information Sheet
‘See you on Zoom!’ – how effective are virtual contacts for stress buffering?
Study title: Effects of virtual versus actual contacts on stress and wellbeing
Thank you so much for considering to participate in our study on perceived and actual physiological stress levels throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. This study will provide a better understanding on how social restrictions and virtual interactions can affect an individual’s stress levels & wellbeing. This study consists of two parts - a questionnaire and a hair sample. Feel free to only do the questionnaire part (your participation will be much appreciated!), but it would be a great help if you could also provide a hair sample. The hair sample will enable us to assess your stress levels retrospectively via hair cortisol analysis while the questionnaire will tell us more about your social engagements over the last months. You can also contact us to request your individual stress level data from your hair sample once the study is completed!
Do I have to take part?
Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. Anybody aged 18 or older is welcome to take part. You can stop, leave or even withdraw your personal data from the study at any time, without giving a reason. You are also free to choose to do only one part of the study, if you prefer.
What will happen if I decide to take part?
If you take part in this study you will be asked to fill in the anonymous questionnaire (below) about you as a person, your social life and about your general wellbeing. It should take about 20 minutes to complete. In order to participate you need to read the Participants Consent Form (next page) and tick a box to indicate that you are happy for us to use your questionnaire responses (and your hair sample should you provide one) for analysis. After the questionnaire, you will encouraged to cut a small amount of your hair (click here for specific instructions or here for overview) and mail this sample to the University of Roehampton.
Are my responses/data anonymous?
Your personal identity will remain totally anonymous. When you start the survey, you will be asked to give an individual ID number. This ID will also need to be entered in the hair sample form and is needed to link your hair sample with your questionnaire responses. Without this information your data cannot be used in this study. If you have participated in our previous questionnaire study AND have provided us with your email address, we will have emailed you the ID to be used here. Using this ID allows us to also link your previous responses to your current and past hair cortisol levels. In that case, your data are pseudo-anonymous (i.e. linked to your email address), but we assure you that no personalised data will be used in any part of the study. As soon as we have linked the data sets, your email address will only be stored in a separate, password protected, encrypted file and will not be used for any data analysis.
Are there any benefits or risks in taking part?
We do not expect people to experience any harm or risk from completing this questionnaire. Your responses will be stored on secure platforms on SurveyMonkey and at the University of Roehampton. Taking a hair sample is entirely voluntary, non-invasive and will not leave a bold patch.
Study title: Effects of virtual versus actual contacts on stress and wellbeing
Thank you so much for considering to participate in our study on perceived and actual physiological stress levels throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. This study will provide a better understanding on how social restrictions and virtual interactions can affect an individual’s stress levels & wellbeing. This study consists of two parts - a questionnaire and a hair sample. Feel free to only do the questionnaire part (your participation will be much appreciated!), but it would be a great help if you could also provide a hair sample. The hair sample will enable us to assess your stress levels retrospectively via hair cortisol analysis while the questionnaire will tell us more about your social engagements over the last months. You can also contact us to request your individual stress level data from your hair sample once the study is completed!
Do I have to take part?
Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. Anybody aged 18 or older is welcome to take part. You can stop, leave or even withdraw your personal data from the study at any time, without giving a reason. You are also free to choose to do only one part of the study, if you prefer.
What will happen if I decide to take part?
If you take part in this study you will be asked to fill in the anonymous questionnaire (below) about you as a person, your social life and about your general wellbeing. It should take about 20 minutes to complete. In order to participate you need to read the Participants Consent Form (next page) and tick a box to indicate that you are happy for us to use your questionnaire responses (and your hair sample should you provide one) for analysis. After the questionnaire, you will encouraged to cut a small amount of your hair (click here for specific instructions or here for overview) and mail this sample to the University of Roehampton.
Are my responses/data anonymous?
Your personal identity will remain totally anonymous. When you start the survey, you will be asked to give an individual ID number. This ID will also need to be entered in the hair sample form and is needed to link your hair sample with your questionnaire responses. Without this information your data cannot be used in this study. If you have participated in our previous questionnaire study AND have provided us with your email address, we will have emailed you the ID to be used here. Using this ID allows us to also link your previous responses to your current and past hair cortisol levels. In that case, your data are pseudo-anonymous (i.e. linked to your email address), but we assure you that no personalised data will be used in any part of the study. As soon as we have linked the data sets, your email address will only be stored in a separate, password protected, encrypted file and will not be used for any data analysis.
Are there any benefits or risks in taking part?
We do not expect people to experience any harm or risk from completing this questionnaire. Your responses will be stored on secure platforms on SurveyMonkey and at the University of Roehampton. Taking a hair sample is entirely voluntary, non-invasive and will not leave a bold patch.