Consent Form

Title of Study: Health and Social Well-being in Nonreligious Women
Investigator: Karen Hwang, Ed.D; Joseph H. Hammer, M.Ed.; David L. Vogel, Ph.D

INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this study is to investigate the health, psychological and social characteristics of women from nonreligious backgrounds. You are only eligible to participate in this study if you are a female 18 years of age or older, speak fluent English, do not have a significant cognitive disability which would impair your ability to complete the survey, and identify as a nonreligious individual.

DESCRIPTION OF PROCEDURES
If you click the “I agree” button on this page to confirm your participation in this study, you will be linked to the online survey. Your participation is completely voluntary and will last less than 30-45 minutes.

RISKS
We do not anticipate that these procedures will cause you any harm, but if you experience discomfort you may talk to the investigators about your concerns. You are free to skip any question that you do not wish to answer or that makes you feel uncomfortable. You are also free at any time to choose to end your participation. There will be no negative effects if you choose to skip a question or discontinue your participation in the study. If you choose to end your participation all data collected will be erased.

BENEFITS AND COMPENSATION
If you decide to participate in this study, there may be no direct benefit to you. It is expected that the information gained in this study will benefit the scientific research community by learning more about the well-being of men and women from religious and nonreligious backgrounds. You will not be compensated.

PARTICIPANT RIGHTS
Your participation in this study is completely voluntary and you may refuse to participate or leave the study at any time. If you decide to not participate in the study or leave the study early, it will not result in any penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled.

CONFIDENTIALITY
The following procedures are in place to help maintain total anonymity. First, NO personal (e.g., name, email) nor electronic identifiers (Your computer’s IP Address) will be collected. Each survey is randomly assigned a research identification number for the purposes of data collection and analysis. Only the researchers of this experiment will have access to the responses. The data will be stored on a password protected office computer, which is behind a locked door. If the results are published, your identity will remain anonymous.

Federal government regulatory agencies and the Institutional Review Board (a committee that reviews and approves human subject research studies) may inspect and/or copy our records for quality assurance and data analysis. These records will not contain private information.

QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS
For further information about the study contact the principal investigators, Karen Hwang, Ed.D, at khwang67@verizon.net, Joseph Hammer, at hammer@iastate.edu, 515- 294-1742, or David Vogel, Ph.D., at dvogel@iastate.edu. If you have any questions about the rights of research subjects or research-related injury, please contact the IRB Administrator, (515) 294-4566, IRB@iastate.edu, or Director, (515) 294-3115, Office for Responsible Research, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011.