Campus Assets Study

***CONSENT FORM***
Saginaw Valley State University - Department of Psychology

Project Title
Campus Assets Study

Researchers
Paige E. Carstensen, pecarste@svsu.edu (Co-Principal Investigator)
Isabelle H. Branch, ihbranch@svsu.edu (Co-Principal Investigator)
Audrey V. Weiss, avweiss@svsu.edu (Research Associate)
Rachel C. Peterhans, rcpeterh@svsu.edu (Research Associate)
Isaac J. Zamora-Ayres, ijzamora@svsu.edu (Research Associate)
Travis J. Pashak, tjpashak@svsu.edu (Faculty Advisor)

Ethics
This study has been approved (i.e., determined exempt status) effective 3/10/2026 by Saginaw Valley State University's Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB reference number for this study is 2381295-2. You may contact the IRB chairperson at irbchair@svsu.edu or 989.964.7488 with any questions or concerns.

Purpose of the Study
You are invited to participate in research which seeks to explore predictors of student wellbeing in college/university settings. This study will involve topics such as resources available to students on campus, student personality characteristics, student reactions to philosophical concerns, and a variety of student mental health and behavioral outcomes. The purpose is to clarify the potential statistical relationships between these various concepts. To be eligible to participate, you must be between the ages of 18 and 29, a current student enrolled at Saginaw Valley State University, a current resident of the United States of America, and fluent in the English language.

Study Procedures
As a participant, you will be asked to view and complete an electronic compilation of surveys presented on a computer or smart device. The surveys will include primarily multiple choice questions, plus a couple short-answer open-ended questions. Participation in the study is expected to take approximately 25 minutes. At the end of the sequence of surveys, you will be redirected to a new portal where you will be asked for your contact information (i.e., name and SVSU email address), so that we can administer your electronic incentive gift card. All participants who complete the surveys will receive a $5 gift card. Gift cards will be delivered via email after all data collection is complete for the whole study. Responses to the gift card portal cannot be connected to responses on the survey portal, so your participation in the study is anonymous. You are free to discontinue at any time without penalty.

Possible Risks
Your participation in this study will ask you to think about and respond to questions regarding a variety of topics, some specifically involving your mental health. The surveys will request information regarding your demographics and identity, perceived presence of developmental assets on campus and in your personal life, concerns and apprehensions about philosophical issues, your overall level of wellbeing, risky/unsafe behaviors conducted on campus, and individual indicators of distress. Some of these questions may cause feelings of discomfort or anxiety. You are free to skip any questions which you would prefer not to answer. You may also withdraw from the study at any time without penalty.

Mandatory Risk Statement
As in all research, there may be unforeseen risks to the participant. If an accidental injury occurs, appropriate emergency measures will be taken; however, no compensation or additional treatment will be made available to the subject except as otherwise stated in this consent form.

Resources
If you have any concerns related to your wellbeing and mental health which arise as a result of responding to the survey items, please consider seeking assistance through the following means:
-Crisis Text Line: https://www.crisistextline.org/
-988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: https://988lifeline.org/
-Psychologist Locator: https://locator.apa.org/
-SVSU Mental Health & Wellness Center: https://www.svsu.edu/mhwc/

Participant Rights
If you choose to be in this study, you have the right to be treated with respect, including respect for your decision whether or not you wish to continue or stop being in the study. You are free to end your participation at any time. Specifically, your choice to end your participation in this study will not negatively affect you.

Benefits/Compensation
By participating in this study and reaching the end of the surveys, you will have the opportunity to enter your contact information into a separate portal for an electronically delivered incentive gift card in the amount of $5 USD. There are no other direct benefits to you as a participant.

Confidentiality
Your data in the form of survey responses will be anonymous. Your identity in the form of name and SVSU email address will only be collected in a separate portal for the sake of administering the incentive gift cards, and those cannot be connected with the survey responses.

Your participation in the study will have no effect on your grades in any college course, your standing at the university, your legal or citizenship status, or any other personal consequence. Again, identifying data (i.e., your name and SVSU email address) will only be collected in a separate portal for the gift cards and cannot be connected to the survey responses. Your study participation will be anonymous.

Responses to the surveys will be analyzed and presented as scientific data in aggregate, with no specification to you. Only the data that you provide will be used when reporting the results of this study. We intend to publish findings of our study in scientific outlets such as academic conferences and/or peer-reviewed journals. We also plan to provide the university with aggregate data on perceived presence of assets on campus (i.e., resources available to students) so that this information could potentially guide decisions on future student offerings. Finally, we plan to post the anonymous dataset to online open-science repositories such as the Open Science Framework (OSF) which could allow future researchers to engage in additional analyses. Again, none of this would personally identify you.

Questions & Concerns
For any inquiries about the study, please feel free to contact the faculty advisor, Dr. Travis J. Pashak (tjpashak@svsu.edu, 989.964.2696). The other researchers on our team can also be contacted through their institutional emails provided above. Participants may also contact the Chairperson of the Human Subjects Institutional Review Board (989-964-7488; irbchair@svsu.edu) if questions or problems arise during the course of the study.