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Consent for Participating Mentors

Why am I being asked to take part in this research study?
You are being asked to participate in this research study because you are a mentor participating in a mentorship relationship. We want to study mentorship relationship quality among mentees and mentors in Canadian mentoring programs, and learn more about your experiences with mentorship.

What is the reason for doing the study?
Canadian adolescents and young adults are reporting high rates of social disconnection and mental health problems. This disconnection has been higher for youth during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Mentoring programs across Canada aim to match children and youth with caring adult mentors to improve wellbeing and connection. A mentoring relationship provides youth with human connection through a constructive role model. The key to the mentoring matches being successful is the quality of the relationships, but we do not know how these relationships form.

This goal of this project is to help mentoring programs assess mentorship relationship quality, and improve their ability to make high quality mentoring matches.
What will happen in the study?

Surveys: You will be asked to complete a survey (made up of multiple questionnaires) on a secure online platform using any device with access to the internet (including desktop, laptop, smartphone, or tablet). The survey will ask you about demographics (for example, your gender and ethnic identities), indicators of your mentoring relationship quality (e.g., closeness, authenticity), and general well-being (e.g., happiness, life satisfaction). Overall, it is expected that it will take you up to 40 minutes (ranges from 20-40) to complete the survey. This can be done all at once or, if you need a break, you can save your progress and return to finish.

Follow-up Interview: At the end of the survey, you will be asked if you would like to participate in a follow-up interview. The purpose of this interview is to gain an in-depth understanding of mentor and mentee perceptions of mentorship relationship quality and any challenges they may face.

You may complete the survey and decline to participate in the follow-up interview if you prefer. If you indicate your interest in participating in an interview, we may or may not contact you to schedule one because we are only interviewing a limited number of volunteers. If we contact you to schedule the follow-up interview, we will use your email. Then, we will email you a Zoom session link. We ask that you be in a non-public place so that you have some privacy and so we do not record anyone else on the Zoom session by accident.

What are the risks and discomforts?
There are no anticipated risks or discomforts associated with participating in this study; however, your participation is completely voluntary. You may withdraw from participating at any point by talking to the researcher, and there will be no penalty for doing so. If this happens, we will remove your information from our collected data, and delete your recording if you participated in the interview task.

As well, the websites we are using to conduct our study may collect some private information from you, such as your IP address. We will not be collecting this information for our research and it will not be connected to your data or recordings in any way. If you would like, we can help you set up your browser to limit the collection of this information before you participate in the study. If you choose to participate in a follow-up interview, you will be asked to provide contact information on a separate form that will not be linked to your survey responses, and will only be used for scheduling purposes.
What are the benefits?
There may be some benefit for participating in this study. You will have an opportunity to answer questions about your mentoring relationship and the quality of that relationship with the hope of improving the program you work with.

We also hope that this study will allow us to better understand mentorship relationship quality such that we can support mentorship programs across Canada in their ability to match compatible mentees and mentors.

Do I have to take part in the study?
Your participation in this study is your choice. If you decide to be in the study, you can change your mind and stop being in the study at any time, and it will in no way affect you. You can skip questions you don’t want to answer. If at any time you decide that you do not want to be a part of the survey or interview, you can just let the researcher know. There will be no consequence if this happens. You can also ask the researcher to withdraw your survey answers or interview responses from the study up to one week after the data has been collected. In that case, any data collected from you (like survey responses or Zoom interview) will be permanently deleted.

Will you be paid to participate in the research?
For participating in this study, you will have the opportunity to enter random draws to win up to two giftcards worth $100 each. If selected as a winner, you will be offered an Indigo/Chapters giftcard. You will be able to enter one draw for completing the survey part of the study, and a second draw if you decide to participate in a follow-up interview. The odds for winning the survey draw are about 1/100, and the odds for winning the interview draw are about 1/20. To enter each draw, you will be asked to enter your email address. You do not need to enter either draw to participate in the study, and can choose not to provide your email for this purpose.

Privacy and Confidentiality
During this study we will be collecting information (or “study data”) about you. We will use the data to help answer research questions. Only the researchers and the University Research Ethics Committee will have access to study data. All information will be kept on a secure online platform approved by the University of Alberta’s Research Ethics Committee. My research team and I will analyze the information collected. The information will be deleted from the computer once it is no longer being used. Data will be kept for a minimum of 5 years following the completion of research.

The overall results of this study may be presented or discussed publicly; however, your information will not be identified and will be kept confidential. This information will never include your name or identifying information.

Your involvement in this study and the information gathered will be kept confidential as described above.

What if I have questions?
If you have any questions about the research now or later, please contact Dr. Christina Rinaldi by phone (780-492-7471) or by email (crinaldi@ualberta.ca). The plan for this study (Pro00109921) has been reviewed by a Research Ethics Board at the University of Alberta. If you have questions about your rights or how research should be conducted, you can call (780) 492-2615. This office is independent of the researchers.

How do I indicate my agreement to be in this study?
By indicating your agreement below, you understand:

1. That you have read the above information and have had anything that you do not understand explained to you to your satisfaction
2. That you will be taking part in a research study
3. That you may freely leave the research study at any time
4. That you do not waive any legal rights by being in the study
5. That the legal and professional obligations of the investigators and involved insti

Question Title

* 1. I UNDERSTAND THAT BY COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING THIS SURVEY I AM AGREEING TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS STUDY AS DESCRIBED ABOVE.

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