Methodological and ethical challenges associated with child self-report ofmaltreatment - Solutions implemented by the LongSCAN consortium

The conduct of research in the area of child abuse and neglect may be one o f the most difficult tasks in social science research. One requirement for valid research is knowledge of the type and amount of exposure. Official re ports have been demonstrated to provide a serious undercount of the frequen cy of maltreatment, and parent report is of limited usefulness. LongSCAN, a consortium of longitudinal studies of abuse and neglect made the decision to ask children for self-report, but with five independent study sires with unique study-to-sample relationships, ethically implementing this choice d emanded customized participant protocols. This article describes the consor tium's approach to asking children for direct reports at age 12, the releva nt methodological and ethical challenges, and solutions developed with inst itutional review boards at 4 of the 5 study sites. The wording of consents and the variations in protocol related to reporting to Child Protective Ser vices are discussed.