Investigators
Principal Investigator: Susan W. White, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Co-Investigator: Brenna Maddox, M.S., Doctoral Graduate Student
Psychology Department, Virginia Tech
Purpose and Procedure
The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between depression, anxiety, self-harm behaviors, and various personality traits in undergraduate and graduate students. It is estimated that approximately 1,000 Virginia Tech students aged 18 and older will participate in this study. Your participation is completely voluntary. You will be asked to complete a series of questions about your behaviors, feelings, and experiences. Please read each question carefully and try to answer each question to the best of your ability. It is estimated that it will take approximately 45 minutes to complete these questions. If you choose to participate in this study, you will be directed to a secure website to complete the survey.
Risks and Benefits
This survey should not take a great deal of time to complete, but it is time that you could spend doing other activities. Also, some of these questions are related to problems (e.g., anxiety, depression) that you may have experienced or are currently experiencing. These questions could make you feel uncomfortable or possibly trigger negative memories. Please remember that, at the end of the survey, we provide a list of several services available to help you if you would like someone to talk to. While some of the agencies listed provide services free of charge, some do charge for services. If you choose to seek treatment from a provider who does charge for the services, it is your responsibility to pay for these services. Also, if the questions are too distressing for you, please remember that you can stop at any time.
There is no immediate and direct benefit to you for completing this survey. However, we hope that results of this project can help in designing future research to benefit students. No promises or guarantees of benefits have been made to encourage you to participate.
Costs and Payment for Participation
There is no cost for participating in this survey, nor is any direct payment offered. However, if you are in a Psychology class that uses the Sona system, you will be offered one extra credit for participating in this study. For information about how this extra credit will affect your grade and alternative ways to earn extra credit, please speak with your class instructor. Please refer to the Sona system to receive your extra credit: https://vt-psyc.sona-systems.com/. Even if you do not complete the whole survey, you will still be entered in the Sona system to receive the credit.
Some students are not in a class that uses the Sona system. If you are a student without access to Sona extra credit, you will be entered into a raffle with the chance to win one of four $20.00 cash prizes. Even if you do not complete the whole survey, you will still be entered in the raffle. Winners will be contacted by e-mail and asked to collect their cash prize from Williams Hall on campus.