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Article History

Received: 24 September 2020

Accepted: 27 September 2021

First Online: 9 October 2021

Declarations

:

: Ethics approval was obtained via an application to the Psychology Ethics Committee at University of Stirling (28th August 2015). The ethics committee approved the use and procedure for verbal consent. All participants gave verbal informed consent before participating in the study. Participation was voluntary and verbal informed consent was obtained by telephone by a research assistant. The research assistant carried this out manually, using paper format to record verbal consent by ticking Yes/No according to the participant’s response. Verbal consent was chosen because it facilitates comprehension of study objectives and questionnaire items, and reduces the unnecessary burden entailed in a written consent form. An institutional review board (IRB) – the FEMA Research Ethics Committee (FREC) located in Malta formally waived the need for ethics approval of this study.

: Not applicable.

: The study was self-funded by the main author. Hence, the main author paid the telephone costs related to the data collection and the costs of the research assistant who obtained verbal informed consent prior to data collection.