Women raising children on farms |
Thank you for your interest in participating in this research project which is intended to hear firsthand from women like you about what it is like to navigate children and work on the farm. The project includes filling out a 5 to 10-minutes background survey and participating in a small group discussion with other women raising children on farms that will last 90 minutes and will be conducted online in February through the Zoom platform. You will receive $50 as a thank you for your time participating in the study.
This project is a collaboration between researchers at the National Farm Medicine Center and at Ohio State University and it is funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. We will use the information that you share with us to develop recommendations for farm organizations, farm service providers, and policymakers regarding future policies and programs that will better support women in agriculture.
Today, we are asking you to agree to participate in the study, fill out the background survey, and answer 4 questions to work out the logistics of your participation in the small group discussion (including choosing a day and time for your participation).
Here is the practical information about how we are conducting this research project:
- Participating in this study is voluntary. Whether or not you decide to take part in this research is completely up to you. You do not have to answer any questions in the short survey or during the group discussion that you do not want to answer.
- The survey that you will fill out today asks about the options that you use to look after the children as well as some background information about your family and farm operation. This background information will help us understand the variations in the strategies and experiences that we will discuss during the small group discussion. We will not share the short survey information during the small group discussion.
- During the small group discussion with up to 7 other women, we will ask you about the strategies that you use to take care of the children while you work and how decisions connected to the children intersect with decisions connected to the farm business, farm safety, and quality of life.
- The small group discussion will be on-line through Zoom. Please participate from a location where you feel that you can speak freely. You can participate from a computer or a phone. While it will be important that you can see visuals that we show, you will not be required to turn your camera on.
- We know that internet access in rural areas can be unreliable. As such, we will ask you at the end of the short survey if you would like assistance finding a location with stable internet access such as the local library or county extension office.
- To make sure that we do not miss anything we will be recording the group discussion. The recording of the discussion will only be used for the purpose of the research study and will not be shared with researchers outside the project. We want to make sure that everyone feels comfortable sharing.
- All information will be kept confidential and the only reasonably foreseeable risk or discomfort associated with your participation would be a break of confidentiality. However, we have taken precautions against that. Your contact information will only be used for the purpose of communicating with you and send you the $50 check as a thank you for your time. Your survey responses will be stored with a coded number. We will only ask for first names during the focus group. In addition, we will ask that you do not share about the group discussion with anyone but cannot guarantee that all participants will keep the discussion private. Last, we will only report results in summary form and if we were to use a quote to illustrate the findings, your real name will not be associated with the quote.
- To receive the $50 check as a thank you for your time, we will ask for your mailing address. However, you are not required to provide your mailing information to participate in the study.
- At the end of the small group discussion, we will talk to you about the next phase of the research: a participatory photography project. This will be another way for women raising children on the farm to share about their experiences navigating the children and work by taking pictures and talking about them with a small group of other women similar to this one. Participating in the small group discussion does not mean that you have to participate in the participatory photography project.
If you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact the research lead: Dr. Florence Becot from the National Farm Medicine Center at (715) 389-9379 or becot.florence@MarshfieldResearch.org. If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant, you may contact the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute’s Institutional Review Board at 1‑800‑782‑8581 ext. 9-3022. The board is responsible for helping protect rights and welfare of human research subjects.