A social and behavioral study may include the inclusion of a short-term drug or alcohol treatment program. This is typically covered by a medical or professional condition that allows for the reception of drug and alcohol programs, respectively.
While not a required part of a social and behavioral study, a short-term drug treatment program may be included for additional safeguards. If your participant does not complete the program, it may be considered abuse and referred to child welfare authorities.
This can have serious consequences as the participant may be considered safe harbor until they are removed from your home due to their need for care. It is important to contact authorities immediately if there is any sign of abuse.
The inclusion of a short-term drug treatment program in your study may help mitigate this risk significantly. Regardless, it is important to have additional safeguards in place that include conducting an abuse study.
Placebo control
A major challenge in administering a social and behavioral intervention is determining who should receive it and how much it should be provided.
Typically, social and behavioral interventions are provided to all individuals within a specified location, or neighborhood. This is to ensure that everyone receives the intended intervention and that they understand what it means to them.
By having only the individuals receive the intervention, there is a higher risk of not fully understanding the intervention and/or losing confidence in its effectiveness. This can lead to dropouts or re-takes of the intervention, which would not achieve the desired results.
Therefore, it is important that enough placebo pills be provided for all participants to achieve a full effect. This allows them to determine if the intervention did what was hoped for, took away any apprehensions, and helped them feel better about themselves.
Independent review of study procedures and results
A social and behavioral study is a great way to learn more about how your community works, what works, and why things work differently from one place to the next.
While there are a few studies that do have a reputation for being high quality social and behavioral studies, there are several ways to include a social and behavioral study in your research.
Mostly, it’s the added assurance that the study will be independent of any other research being done in your community. It is typically done by two separate researchers who meet to discuss their roles and responsibilities.
This way, neither researcher can be influenced by the results of their study which might be “rubbing too hard” or “too soft” on crime. They also have to consider factors such as independence from both trends if they want to continue working in their field.
De-identification of personal information
De-identification is the process of removing identifying details such as names, dates, and places from information. This may include removing identifying information like social media accounts or even actual physical documents like a driver’s license.
De-identification does not remove information about who you are as a person, so your study team will have to evaluate whether or not your nonhuman companions’ de-identified social media accounts accurately represent their real lives.
If your nonhuman companions have children, any members of the public that might know the birds’ childre may need to be notified. If the birds have any kind of disability, for example if they are unable to leave the cage to visit anyone or perform any task on their own, then it might be necessary to reduce how much they are allowed to do for fear of ID theft.
Overall, having de-identified personal information would help eliminate these concerns as well as aid in developing a more accurate picture of your two birds.
Collecting additional personal information for backup purposes
Another possible component of a social and behavioral study may include collecting additional personal information for backup purposes. This additional information may include:
new patterns of behavior collected during the study, if new behavior changes are observed. old habits that have been maintained may be keeping information on recent behavior and/or physical health conditions.
It is important to note that this additional personal information should not be collected for the purpose of conducting a behavioral study – only data collected during a behavioral study may be used in creating a behavioral study.
Any additional personal information collected during a social and behavioral study must be kept confidential, under the supervision of an experienced institution staff member, and used only for the original purpose of this research.
Reviewing results by an expert panel
It is common for studies to include additional safeguards in addition to a behavioral and social study. The safeguards may be done by the study team, or by an expert panel convened by the study team to review and update the study guidelines.
These safeguards may include:
Reviewing results by an expert panel
Reviewing the findings of the study by an independent panel of experts convened by the study team or convened by an expert in social and behavioral studies to update guidelines is a good idea. This way, both experts are aware of important changes in research, and they can tell if they were included properly.
This can help ensure that any conclusions drawn from the research are valid and evidence-based. It also helps keep all parties on track with regards to reviewing literature and updating guidelines as new research comes out.
Conducting a structured review of the data after collection
It is common to gather data at multiple locations, and during multiple times, which can be additional safeguards into the data. These extra checks may include:
Recording any phone conversations or other communications with the individual during or following the behavioral study
Determining if any other studies were conducted on the subject before or after this one
Of course, it is important to note any changes in data that might occur as a result of these additional checks. This could include a change in findings, a decrease in reporting of harm, or an increase in self-reported health.
Curbing potential biases that may affect the review and data collection is also important. Any personal information that is revealed in the review must be kept confidential until all parties agree that it has been collected correctly.
Analyzing data multiple ways
Data can be analyzed in many different ways. There are many methods for analyzing data, so next time you’re doing a social and behavioral study, consider this list of possibilities.
Some of these methods of analysis are discussed in more detail in this section. You can read more about them if you wish, but the main point that should be kept in mind is that data can be analyzed for many things besides simply determining whether or not a behavior change strategy is working.
These various ways of analyzing data include:
Using different types of data such as interview responses, survey responses, diary entries, etc.
Adhering to protocols for data storage and security
It is very important that your study participants safeguard their data while in the study. Your study may include several months of participants’ lives, so it is important to consider how they will protect their data during this time.
Data stored electronically should be stored securely. Participants should make sure that they do not leave any identifying information such as their username and password anywhere that computer files can be accessed.
It is recommended that participants keep all of their notes and results in the same folder to aid in security. If a participant loses their data, they can copy and send it to themselves through the app or website they were using to record their data.
If participants want to ensure that they are following the guidelines for the study, they can create personal folders for each of these things. By having these personal folders, it also helps to maintain confidentiality of the data.
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