TO: Foundation Student Parents
 
Plain Language Statement and Consent
Date: 15/7/2024
Full Project Title: Digital Technology use and associated psychosocial well-being: child and teacher perspectives
Principal Researchers: Dr Sharon Horwood, Professor Louise Paatsch
Student Researcher: Jacquelyn Harverson
Associate Researcher(s): Dr Jeromy Anglim 
 

We are inviting students in Foundation at St Joseph's to take part in our research regarding children’s typical use of digital technology across home and school settings.

1. Study Aims

Digital technology can be a big part of children’s lives, and they often use these technologies in many ways and for many reasons. Children may be entertained, play, learn, and connect with others in a variety of settings throughout their day, all with the help of technology. Our aim is to understand what digital experiences typically look like for children within their daily routines, both at home and school, while also exploring what types of use show the most positive outcomes for children’s well-being (e.g., their mood, behaviour, social and family interactions).

2. What will participation involve for my child?

The present research aims to gather children’s perspectives on, and experiences of, technology use through informal group discussions. If you consent for your child to take part, they will be included with other children from their class in a single 20–30-minute focus group with 1-2 members of the Deakin University research team. The focus group will be held in your child’s classroom or common Foundation area within view of your child’s classroom teacher at a time least disruptive to usual lessons and learning.
Within the focus group sessions, the researchers will invite the children to respond to prompts such as:

• I wonder if we can think of all the different types of digital technology that you use in your day?
• Let’s think of some ideas about what you might use different types of technology for.
• What do you most enjoy about using (device/s that the children have suggested)?

So that the researchers can focus on talking with the children about their experiences and ideas, each session will be audio recorded. The children will also be invited to draw a picture during the focus group of themselves using digital technology. This activity will be used to help the children communicate their ideas with the researcher and get conversation in the group flowing.

As well as gaining your consent to talk with your child, the research team will explain the research to the children and gain their assent to be included in the discussions by asking them to complete a Smiley meter. As seen in the example below, the Smiley meter will contain a happy and sad face and your child will be asked to circle the happy face if they are willing to be included, and the sad face if they are not.



If you have provided consent but on the day your child indicates that they are not sure or not happy to talk with us that is absolutely fine, and they will not be included.

3. Potential risks and benefits to participants and the broader community

There are no anticipated risks to your child within this research study. Allowing your child to take part in the focus group is entirely voluntary. Furthermore, students who do take part in the focus group will not be pressured to contribute or answer any questions if they do not wish to. The focus groups are designed to be a fun and relaxed conversation, and the researchers will phrase questions openly and remind the children throughout the session that all thoughts and ideas are welcome, and that there are no “right” or “wrong” answers.

Children’s use of digital technologies across both home and school has become commonplace. The information gathered in this research will assist to better understand the different ways in which children in the early years of schooling commonly use digital technologies, as well as potential relationships between these patterns of use and a broad range of child well-being indicators such as mood, behaviour, social skills, and family interactions. This research will support parents and teachers to understand how different types of children’s digital technology use could contribute to positive well-being outcomes for the growing generation and beyond.

4. Privacy and confidentiality

The voice of your child will be captured through the audio recording of the focus group session. This recording will be stored on secure Deakin University servers for a minimum of 5 years in line with Deakin University’s data retention policy. While the researcher will use the children’s first names when speaking to them throughout the focus group, no names will be used for transcription, instead pseudonyms will be used. As such, the data will be de-identified for analysis and published data will have no reasonable way of re-identifying any individual participant.

Your child’s personal details collected in the attached consent and child assent forms will be stored on secure Deakin University servers. If these details have been collected in hard copy form, the hard copies will be scanned for electronic storage and the original documents will be destroyed via a secure shredding service. The children’s personal details will be kept separate to the transcribed data, and the transcribed data will not be connected with the children’s personal details at any point.

If your child chooses to draw a picture during the focus group, a digital copy (photograph) will be taken and stored on secure Deakin University servers.

De-identified data may be shared with other researchers via the Open Science Framework (OSF). De-identified data will be stored on secure Deakin University servers and retained for a minimum period of 5 years, in line with Deakin University’s data retention policy.

Use of information and results

The data collected will be used for two purposes:

1. De-identified, group level data will be reported within the student researcher, Jacquelyn Harverson’s, PhD thesis exploring the associations between young children’s digital technology use and well-being.
2. It is intended that the data will be published in peer-reviewed academic journals, and findings may be presented at academic conferences.

If you are interested in the results of the study, please contact either of the researchers listed below, Jacquelyn Harverson and/or Dr Sharon Horwood. We will be happy to forward through a copy of any paper accepted for publication.

Withdrawal from the study

If you choose to withdraw your child from the research after collection you may contact the research team via email (jharverson@deakin.edu.au). In this instance, you will need to provide us with your child’s school, class, and first name and from this we will be able to match the videorecording with the unique identifier given to your child to then remove their data from analysis.

Further information

If you have any questions about the study, please get in touch via email:

Mrs Jacquelyn Harverson – jharverson@deakin.edu.au
Dr Sharon Horwood – Sharon.horwood@deakin.edu.au

While we do not anticipate any discomfort to be caused by participation within this research, please be aware that support can be found through contact with one of the following services:

Beyond Blue website: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/ phone: 1300 224 636
Lifeline – website: https://www.lifeline.org.au/ phone: 13 11 14
Kids Helpline – website: https://kidshelpline.com.au/ phone: 1800 55 1800

Complaints
If you have any complaints about any aspect of the project, the way it is being conducted or any questions about your rights as a research participant, then you may contact: 

The Human Research Ethics Office, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood Victoria 3125, Telephone: 9251 7129, research-ethics@deakin.edu.au

Please quote project number HEAG-H 123_2024.