Home Forums Autism Research Parent intervention programme research – Control Group participants needed

Viewing 0 reply threads
  • Author
    Posts
    • Alison
      Participant
      Post count: 1

      Dear Parent

      I am a trainee Educational Psychologist at The Institute of Education (part of University College London) and, as part of my course, I am conducting research into the Cygnet parent intervention programme for parents of a child diagnosed with autism. As part of this research, in addition to talking to parents attending the programme, I need a Control Group, of parents who have not attended the programme and are not currently receiving any other structured support to help them with their child, to compare against.

      If you fit the criteria for the Control Group I would really appreciate your support for this research. I have attached an Information Sheet below to explain further. But basically I am looking for participants to complete an identical set of 3 short questionnaires (probably no more than 15 minutes to complete all 3) on three separate occasions over a 4 month period and send them to me. So it will not involve a significant time input and will help make this research of greater value.

      Please read the Information Sheet and, if you meet the criteria and are willing to participate, please contact me at the email address provided below and I will then send you a consent form and the first set of questionnaires. If you have any questions about this please do not hesitate to contact me.

      Thanks very much in anticipation.

      Kind regards

      Alison Bates
      Trainee Educational Psychologist

      alison.bates.15@ucl.ac.uk

      Project Title: Cygnet Intervention Programme for Parents of Children on the Autistic Spectrum: A study exploring changes in the parents’ perceived competence, well-being and their children’s behaviour

      October 2016 – May 2018

      Control Group Information Sheet

      Dear Parent

      My name is Alison Bates and I am inviting you to take part in my research project. I am a Year 2 Trainee Educational Psychology student at the Institute of Education and, as part of the programme, we are required to undertake a Doctoral Thesis project.

      The aim of this project is to explore the experiences of people attending the Cygnet Parent Intervention programme. I am hoping to find out more about the impact that attending the programme has on the well-being of the participants and how well participants feel they can manage their child’s behaviour. I plan to take this information back to the authority to help them in developing the programme for parents in the future.

      As in all such studies the data collected needs to come from two separate sources – a sample of parents who participate in the Cygnet programme, and a sample (a Control Group) of parents who have not yet done so – so the data can be compared between the two groups.

      You have been invited to join the Control Group as you have not yet taken part in the programme and your data would be extremely valuable to this study.

      What would I need to do if I took part?

      Information gathering consists of three short questionnaires (around 5-10 mins each) which you will be asked to complete at three separate points in time: After the first time of completion, the same questionnaires will be repeated after 6 weeks, and again after a further gap of 12 weeks, to mirror the stages of the Cygnet programme.

      All your responses will be kept confidential.

      Confidentiality
      To preserve your anonymity, I will be allocating you a unique person identifier. If you subsequently, at any stage, decide that you would rather not participate, your data will be withdrawn if requested at any time up to 14 days after completion of the final questionnaires. After this point all data will be included, but only in anonymous form.

      All data will be stored on a password protected university computer which only myself and the marker have access to. It will not be shared with anyone else other than the Institute of Education and, in a more generic sense, with Surrey Educational Psychology Service. All data will be deleted once the work has been graded and I would just like to reiterate that confidentiality will be maintained at all times.

      It is, of course, entirely up to you whether or not you choose to take part, but your input would be very valuable to this study and potentially help improve the Cygnet programme’s value to future participants.

      I very much hope that you would like to take part and take this opportunity to share your views and feelings. This information sheet has tried to answer any questions you might have about the project, but please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is anything else you would like to know.

      Thank you very much for taking the time to read this information sheet.

      Kind regards

      Alison Bates

Viewing 0 reply threads
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.