Welcome and thank you for your participation. The purpose of this page (i.e., the informed consent) is to make sure that the participant understands the purpose of the study and the nature of their involvement in the study. The purpose of the research study is to examine the psychological characteristics of athletes and to explore coping strategies that are applied by athletes in order to enhance their performance. The survey will be administered through a secure online format and should take between 15-20 minutes to complete. The participant will not be required to participate in any other tasks associated with the study. There are no physical risks associated with the research; however, if there are any survey questions that the participant does not wish to answer they are free to skip them. Participation in the study is completely voluntary and the participant may choose to stop answering items at any time. Refusal to answer any particular questions or withdrawal from the study will not affect the participant’s relationship with the researcher, York University or any other group associated with this project.
All information collected on individual participants will remain completely confidential, and will be used solely for research purposes. With respect to anonymity and confidentiality, the data will be collected anonymously, without any identifying information collected. Since there is no identification, the researchers will not be able to withdraw the data after it is submitted. During the assessment process, participants can change their responses by using the back button. Also, the assessment must be completed all at once because there is no way to re-access a participant’s survey responses at a later date if the browser is closed. If this occurs, the participant must begin the survey again and the data from the incomplete survey will not be used. All data collected online for this study are strictly confidential (the fullest extent possible by law) and is stored on a secure internet server. Data will be stored for a minimum of seven years and will be deleted after that period of time.
The research study has been reviewed and approved by the Human Participants Review Sub-Committee, York University’s Ethics Review Board and conforms to the standards of the Canadian Tri-Council Research Ethics guidelines. If there are any questions about this process or about your rights as a participant in the study, please contact the Sr. Manager & Policy Advisor for the Office of Research Ethics, 5th Floor, York Research Tower, York University (telephone 416-736-5914 or e-mail ore@yorku.ca). If you have specific question about the study, the following people are involved and may be contacted.
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Peter Papadogiannis, Ph.D. (principle investigator) – papa30@yorku.ca; peterpapa30@msn.com; or 416-220-8603
Jason Galea, Ph.D. - dr.galea@me.com
Omar Dousheh (data collection assistant) – omez53@yorku.ca