You are invited to participate in a research study conducted by Drs Kristen Lwin and Kristina Nikolova from the School of Social Work at the University of Windsor.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
This study is aims to examine Canadian child welfare workers’ quality of life being in a helping profession, and organizational culture and climate. The study also aims to assess whether child welfare worker and organizational characteristics are related to service decisions.
PROCEDURES
If you volunteer to participate in this study, you will be asked to complete an online survey, which includes questions about yourself (e.g., education level and field, position, caseload), your perception of the social context in the organizational environment, and your quality of life being in a helping profession. The online survey also includes a case vignette, where you will be asked to identify the risk of future maltreatment to the child, the family’s strengths and needs, and next service steps. The online survey should take between 30 and 40 minutes. The survey is fully anonymized, and we do not require any personal information, such as your name or employing agency.
POTENTIAL RISKS AND DISCOMFORTS
There is a potential risk that you may feel uncomfortable, anxious, or upset participating in the study. There is also a risk to feel a loss of privacy or reputation for choosing to, or choosing not to, participate in the study. The decision to participate in the study is totally voluntary and fully anonymous; there is no requirement to participate. The URL from which you are completing the survey cannot be traced back to you. If you agree to participate and begin to complete the survey, you may withdraw from the study by closing your browser at any time. There are no consequences or repercussions for choosing not to participate in the study or by choosing to withdraw from participation. Your participation in the study will not be known by the organization that recruited you or PART and your decision to participate or not will have no impact on your relationship with your employer or the organization that recruited you or PART.
POTENTIAL BENEFITS TO PARTICIPANTS AND/OR TO SOCIETY
Findings from this study aim to build knowledge about child welfare workers’ quality of life being in a helping profession and service delivery in Canada. This is the first time many of these measures have been used in Canada and will hopefully be used in future studies to support child welfare workers and service delivery.
RENUMERATION
If you choose to be included, there will be a random draw for $25 gift card where 50 people will receive an e-gift card to Tim Horton’s or Amazon, based on their preference. If you would like to enter into the random draw at the end of the survey you will find a link to a separate survey where you can enter your name and email address. This second survey, where you enter your name and email address, is not linked to your first survey,
therefore, your participation in the study remains anonymous. If you enter into the random draw and are one of the 50 people chosen you will be notified by email, if you are not chosen you will not be notified.
PARTICIPATION AND WITHDRAWAL
Upon consenting to participate in the study, you will be automatically directed to the online survey. You can withdraw your consent to participate in the study by closing your browser and not completing the survey or specific questions. Your responses will be saved after the completion of each section of the survey. You may choose to close your web browser at any time; however, any pages of the survey that have been completed will be included in the analysis. Once the survey is closed ([insert date here]) responses will be downloaded and saved on a University of Windsor computer and kept under password protection and retained until the completion of the study. Only Drs. Kristen Lwin and Kristina Nikolova, and research assistants will have access to the data. The data will not be shared with any other party or agency. It is estimated that the survey will take between 30 and 40 minutes to complete.
You may choose to withdraw from the study at any time. There is no penalty for withdrawing from the study. You cannot, however, have your data removed from analyses, as all surveys are anonymous.
FEEDBACK OF THE RESULTS OF THIS STUDY TO THE PARTICIPANTS
Results of this study will be found on the University of Windsor website in summer 2026 at https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/research-result-summaries/.
Results will also be provided to child welfare workers through written reports and oral presentations through Practice and Research Together (PART) www.partcanada.org in spring 2025. If you would like a report emailed directly to you please email Kristen Lwin at kristen.lwin@uwindsor.ca
SUBSEQUENT USE OF DATA
These data may be used in subsequent studies, publications, and presentations. All data will be presented in the aggregate. Data on Qualtrics will be deleted upon completion of the study (spring 2026), the PI will securely store the data for further analyses.
RIGHTS OF RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
If you have questions regarding your rights as a research participant, contact: The Office of Research Ethics, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, N9B 3P4; Telephone: 519-253-3000, ext. 3948; email: ethics@uwindsor.ca. This study has been cleared by the University of Windsor Research Ethics Board (clearance #24-009).
Link to survey: https://uwindsor.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bxPZlV51026hct8
Please contact Dr. Kristen Lwin (University of Windsor) if you have any questions at kristen.lwin@uwindsor.ca.
