Informed Consent and Deception

In this chapter, we discuss informed consent, assent, and deception. In child abuse research, several unique scenarios exist relating to obtaining informed consent. First, for a child subject whose parents may be suspected of abuse, it can be argued that they are not able to act in the child’s best interest and thus not able to provide consent. Second, a child who is a ward of the state/crown has substitute parents/foster parents with limited decision-making power. Lastly, situations may exist where information needs to be obtained from a third party (such as a school or daycare) as part of a research study. Each of these situations raises questions relating to informed consent. Assent of a child subject also introduces challenges in the context of child abuse research. How to obtain assent from an abused child and how much information is necessary are subjects of much debate. Finally, there are circumstances where the disclosure of the purpose of a research study to a potential subject could influence the participation and/or actions of that subject in the study. This concept of ‘non-disclosure’ is separate and distinct from ‘deception’ in that deception involves the process of misleading a subject.