Ethical Issues in Research: Homeless Youths' Study Analysis

This report examines the ethical considerations in research involving homeless youths, focusing on the work of Ensign and Ammerman. It identifies homeless youths as a vulnerable population requiring specific ethical safeguards, including legal and ethical research considerations. The report highlights ethical issues such as the use of incentives (vouchers/gift cards vs. money) and differences between academic disciplines. Key ethical principles at risk include beneficence, nonmaleficence, and fidelity/responsibility. Strategies for upholding ethical principles, such as community-based participatory research (CBPR), are discussed. The report concludes with an assessment of these strategies' adequacy and suggests future research directions, including the impact of incentives, regional variations, and consensus-building on research practices. The report is a valuable resource for understanding the complexities of ethical research with vulnerable populations.

Running head: RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
Research Methodologies
Ethical Issues in Research with Homeless Youths: Josephine Ensign & Seth Ammerman
Name of the Student
Name of the Organization
Author’s Note:

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
Table of Contents
Question 1..................................................................................................................................2
Question 2..................................................................................................................................3
Question 3..................................................................................................................................4
Question 4..................................................................................................................................5
Question 5..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
Question 1
Identification of Vulnerable Population that Require Legal or Ethical Research
Considerations
This article mainly focuses on the homeless youths in North America, who need legal
and ethical research considerations. With the help of a web based questionnaire, the social
service providers as well as health care providers, researchers and program administrators
have surveyed on 120 individuals. Amongst them, 72 homeless youths completed that survey
(Ensign & Ammerman, 2008). The research team even included few minor individuals to
complete their survey. These homeless youth people are extremely larger as well as
marginalized sub population, who are experiencing homelessness in North America for
several different reasons. The homeless individuals were found in every major urban area of
the country.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
Question 2
Identification of Ethical Issues in Conducting of Research with Identified Vulnerable
Group
The survey group selected homeless youths of North America for the purpose of
completing their survey. The research was then reviewed and approved by the Human
Subjects Committee of University of Washington. Several ethical issues were identified while
executing the survey (Ensign & Ammerman, 2008). The first and the foremost finding was
that the program administrators and healthcare providers, who did physical health research
use vouchers or gift cards vs money as the research incentives and the researchers, who did
mental health research used money for incentives. The difference between the academic
disciplines were the next significant ethical issue identified while conducting the research
with homeless youths.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
Question 3
Identification of Basic Ethical Principles at Risk of Being Jeopardized
The guiding principle of ethics within the remuneration to participate in the research
was that the ethical principle should not be on the basis of risk level. The risk level should not
be quite high for being coercive (Ensign & Ammerman, 2008). This particular ethical
principle of beneficence as well as nonmaleficence was identified while the proper
identification of ethical issue regarding incentives of researchers. The other ethical principle
identified here was fidelity and responsibility. Since, the researches were required to
complete the research on the homeless youths of North America, this specific ethical
principle was at the risk of being jeopardized.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
Question 4
Description of Strategies for Ensuring that Core Principles of Ethical Research are
Protected
The ethical principles were at stake or at risk of being jeopardized while the execution
of research on the homeless youths of North America. These ethical principles were to be
protected and for this purpose, the researchers undertook some of the basic strategies (Ensign
& Ammerman, 2008). The major strategy used in this article was to reduce the problem by
attending to the practices and principles of CBPR or community based participatory research.
This particular approach of community based participatory research has the major emphasis
on collaborative approach for every aspect of the process of research after inclusion of
resource sharing capacity as well as reciprocity.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
Question 5
Explanation of Adequacy of Identified Strategies for Upholding Core Principles of
Research
The strategies were extremely adequate to uphold the research principles and the
research got future research directions for understanding the homeless youths. The first
research direction was whether the homeless youths more influenced with the utilization of
money as their research incentives (Ensign & Ammerman, 2008). The second was what
effects the monetary as well as non-monetary incentive has on participation of research. The
proper examination of variations in respect to state, country, region and province was
consented for homeless youths. The fourth direction was exploration of reasons for the
differences within academic disciplines for subject payment and finally the correct methods
for seeking the consensus on the parameter to use various types of research incentives.

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References
Ensign, J., & Ammerman, S. (2008). Ethical issues in research with homeless
youths. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 62(3), 365-372. Retrieved from
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/36519824/EnsignAmmerman200
8.pdf?
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disposition=inline%3B%20filename
%3DEthical_Issues_in_Research_with_Homeless.pdf