Gillespie, Steven M.
Kongerslev, Mickey T.
Sharp, Carla
Bo, Sune
Abu-Akel, Ahmad M.
Article History
First Online: 27 April 2018
Compliance with Ethical Standards
:
: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
: The study was performed in accordance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments, and was approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency and the Research Ethics Committee for Region Zealand, acting under the Danish Act on a Biomedical Research Ethics Committee System and the Processing of Biomedical Research Projects.
: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants, and all participants received both written and verbal information about study aims and procedures. Because the participants were minors, it is generally required that informed consent is obtained from a parent or guardian. However, the Research Ethics Committee of Region Zealand gave special permission for the young people participating in this study to give their own informed consent, without the researchers also asking for additional parental consent. All participants chose to give written and verbal informed consent, without parental involvement. Participants were not offered any remuneration for their participation. To minimize risk of coercion, staff at the secure institutions who were not invested in the research project approached eligible participants and provided a brief explanation of the study. The researcher later met with those who were interested in taking part and provided further details about the study aims and participation, as well as handing out written descriptions. It was emphasized throughout that participation was voluntary, and that the decision not to take part would have no implications for the individual within the secure sites or in the judicial system.