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Loras College Institutional Review Board

REQUEST FOR IRB REVIEW
Faculty Research Project
Please complete the following research application. Provide all information requested as part of this
application. Do not simply refer to other documents or grant applications. Once completed, send
this form, with the attached Research description, and all supporting documents (email preferred) to
the Institutional Review Board chair: Kathrin Parks, Sociology Program (588-7819);
kathrin.parks@loras.edu
Ethics Certification: In submitting this review request, you agree to conduct this research as
described in the attached documents. You agree to request and wait to receive approval from the
IRB for any changes to the research proposal. You will comply with the policies for conducting
ethical research as outlined in the Belmont Report (at http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/policy/belmont.html
.) and other applicable professional ethical standards.
1. Principal Researcher(s) and contact information: Lisa R. Grinde lisa.grinde@loras.edu;
563.588.7113
2. Title of Project: Parental Views on the Importance of Technological and Natural World
Knowledge and Experience
3. Proposed duration of all project activities: From 10/14 to 10/15
4. Approximate number of subjects: 100
5. Type of subject: (Mark all appropriate)
x__ Adults, Non-student

__ Persons with cognitive or psychological

__ Loras College students

impairment

__ Other college students

__ Persons with limited civil freedom

__ Minors (under age 18)

__ Persons with HIV+/AIDS

__ Pregnant women

6. Special considerations: (Mark all appropriate)

_x_ No special materials

__ Use of deception (explain in attachment)

__ Videotaping

__ Use of alcohol or drugs

__ Audio taping

__ Other (explain):

7. Funding source (other than Loras College): n/a

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8. Student Collaborators: (List names of students who you know will be assisting with the
project. State if others may be added later.)
Morgan Meyer
Alison Dalton
Kelsey Wieneke
Mary Phillips
Please complete the Research Description outlined on the next page.
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION
Please address each of the following points below. If a question or section is not applicable to your
research, please state this.
1. Purpose & Significance of Project.
Briefly describe the purpose of your research.
With young children spending more time with technological devices and less time outside in the
natural world, the purpose of this research is to examine how parents are not only influencing
the time spent in each of these activities, but what their beliefs and attitudes are regarding the
positive and negative consequences of both technology and time outdoors for early
development.

Describe your hypotheses/goals. If you give background on previous research that supports
your goals, please include reference citations at end of this section.
The goals of this study are to gather demographic data to begin an examination of this timely
topic. We want to know more about current habits of both young children and parents in regards
to time spent with technology and time spent outdoors in natural world play/exploration. We
also wish to learn more about how parents view the importance, necessity and concerns of each
of these influences on their young childrens development. In each of these arenas wed like to
know if the demographics of the population influence the responses, such are location,
education, income, etc. Research on young children also usually relies on parental reports, most
often mothers reports. In this study, we would like to gather data from both mothers and fathers
to compare and contrast their expectations and beliefs.
o We expect to find that young children are spending more time per week with technology
than time outdoors.
o We also hypothesize that young childrens behaviors will mimic parents behaviors: those
who spend more time on technology/outdoor activities will have children who also
spend more time on technology/outdoor activities.
o We expect parents to express more developmental concern about outdoor play than
technological activities.

Include an explanation of the expected outcome.

There is already well-established data suggesting school-age children are spending more time on
technology and less time outdoors, so we believe the same pattern will hold true for young children.
Based on behavioral learning theories, such as operant conditioning and social learning, we believe
the manner in which children spend their time is reinforced and modeled by the parental units.

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Through media, parents have become aware of the possible dangers of the outdoors. However, the
media coverage of the possible dangers of technology for young childrens development is
relatively new. In addition, technology is more convenient and may benefit parents more, resulting
in the parents not paying attention to the negative effects technology is having on early
development.

Indicate why the information obtained might be useful or beneficial.

As young children are spending less time outdoors and more time on technology, it is important that
we find out parents roles in this trend and more importantly, what knowledge they have about the
benefits and drawbacks of each. The results of this study could help to provide more guidance to
parents of young children about the benefits and potential negative consequences of time outdoors
and screen time. We are also hoping to use the insight gained from this study to develop a
longitudinal study examining parents expectations, knowledge and parenting in these areas from
prenatal development to age 3.

2. Participants
Recruitment:
How will you recruit the participants? Where will they be recruited from?
Participants will be recruited via Amazons Mechanical Turk (M-Turk), an online
recruitment base. The survey is posted on the online site and registered users are invited
to complete the survey. Participants will be paid .50 cents for completing the survey.
(Heres an NPR article on Mechanical Turk for those unfamiliar with it:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/03/05/279669610/post-a-survey-onmechanical-turk-and-watch-the-results-roll-in).
How will they be selected? M-Turk allows the researcher to put restrictions or certain
qualifications on the survey. This survey will only be open to registered users who are
identified as parents of one child and the child must be between the ages of 0-36 months
of age.
Justification is required if participants will be restricted to one gender, racial, or ethnic
group. N/a
Consent:
How will you obtain consent? When the participant opens the survey online the first
page will be the consent form. The participant will give consent by clicking submit and
moving on to the survey. (see Appendix A)
If, due to the nature of your research, a formal consent document cannot be used,
justification for this must be given.
Collaboration:
If you will be collaborating with other institutions in order to recruit participants and
conduct the research, please attach approvals that have been or will be obtained (e.g.,
school districts, hospitals, other colleges). Preferably these will be letters on the
cooperating institutions letterhead, stating willingness to participate.
3. Methods and Procedure: Describe your research procedure.

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What will you ask the participants to do? Participants will be asked to complete a survey packet
containing both closed and open-ended questions (see Appendix B).

Where will they do this? Alone or in groups? They will do this on a computer alone via MTurk.

How long will the procedure take? How many sessions? This is one survey, taken at one time,
and will take approximately 15-20 minutes.

Give details about any questionnaires or stimuli participants will be exposed to; be specific in
amounts or dosages of any substances participants will be asked to ingest. (see Appendix B).

Instruments/Materials: Attach copies of all forms, surveys and instruments to be used. (see
Appendix B)
o Nature Relatedness Scale: Nisbet, E. K. L., Zelenski, J. M., & Murphy, S. A. (2009). The
Nature Relatedness Scale: Linking individuals connection with nature to environmental
concern and behaviour. Environment and Behavior, 41, 715-740.
o All other questions were written by the research team.

4. Risk & Benefit Analysis

What are the psychological, physical, or social (loss of reputation, deception, privacy, etc) risks
subjects might encounter by participating? (Please do not say none. All activities involve
some risk, although it may be minimal.) This study involves minimal risk. Some participants
may feel uncomfortable or judged regarding answering questions about their childs time
outdoors or screen time.

What precautions will you take to protect participants or reduce risk? Participants know that
they can exit the survey at any time as stated in the consent form. The survey is also anonymous.

What benefit, if any, will the participants gain from participating in this research? (Please do
not include compensation or course credit as benefit. If none, simply state that.) Because the
survey is anonymous and does not allow for follow-up, there are no benefits directly to the
participants.

What compensation, if any, will participants receive (payment, gifts, course credit, etc.)? (If
none, simply state that.) Each participant will receive a payment of 50 cents via Amazon. From
information I gained at a conference presentation I attended on MTurk this past spring, this
seemed to be an average payment. The participants receive this payment via a gift card to use at
amazon.com.

What follow-up or debriefing procedures will you have after the research is concluded? There
will be no follow-up or debriefing procedures with this study.

If any deception or withholding of information is required for this research, please explain why
it is necessary and how this will be handled in the debriefing. Attach debriefing script. n/a

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5. Data Handling
How will the data be kept anonymous or confidential? Data will be anonymous. No identifying
information will be collected, just demographics. All data will be downloaded from M-Turk and
transferred into an SPSS file.

Where will data be stored and for how long? Who will have access to the data? Data will be
stored in an SPSS file on Professor Grindes computer and will be kept for at least five years.
Students working in Professor Grindes lab will have access to the data.

Include specific details on the use and storage of any audio or video tapes.

Do you anticipate using any of this data for other work in the future? If so, please explain and
include this information in the consent form. Yes, we are hoping that this data provides the
baseline for a future longitudinal study. However, the data will not be directly utilized as the
longitudinal study will involve a local group of parents and children.

Do you anticipate using any of this data in publications or other professional presentations? If
so, please explain briefly and include this information in the consent form. Yes, students will
likely present this data at a local or regional conference.

6. If Participants Will Be Minors (Under age 18)

Justify the inclusion of minors.

Specify how parental consent will be obtained

Specify how you will obtain assent of minor subjects.

Describe any activities planned for non-participants, if other children in a classroom will be
participating.

Describe how you will use nonverbal signs to indicate when young children wish to stop
participating.

7. Consent Forms. Please attach one of the following options related to obtaining consent:
Written Consent Attach copy of all consent & assent forms. See Informed Consent
Checklist on the IRB website
(http://inside.loras.edu/Academics/AcademicCommittees/IRB/default.aspx) (See Appendix
A)

Oral consent Provide justification for not obtaining written consent and the text of the
script you will use to obtain oral consent.

Waiver of consent Provide written justification for waiving consent process. This is rare
and usually granted only if consent process itself adds substantial risk to the research.

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Appendix A: Informed Consent Form

You are invited to participate in a research study entitled, Parental Views on the Importance of
Technological and Natural World Knowledge and Experience, being conducted by Loras College
Psychology professor Lisa Grinde, Ph.D., and four psychology research students: Ali Dalton,
Morgan Meyer, Mary Phillips, and Kelsey Wieneke. The purpose of this research is to look at
parental attitudes and behaviors in regards to the time young children spend on technological
devices and the time spent outdoors in the natural world.
Your participation in this study would be voluntary at all times. You can choose not to participate at
all or leave this study at any time. If you choose to participate, you will be asked to take a survey
that will take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. In order to be eligible for this survey, you
must be at least 18 years old and currently have only one child and that child must be between
0-36 months of age.
All of your responses to the survey instrument will remain anonymous and cannot be linked to you
in any way. While you will be asked general demographic questions, such as age and gender, no
identifying information will be collected and your survey will only be identified by an identification
number randomly assigned by Mechanical Turk. You will receive compensation in the amount of .
50 cents to your Mechanical Turk account once you have completed the survey and successfully
clicked on the submit button.
Survey data will be kept on the primary researchers computer and only she and her research
students will have access to it. Data will likely be presented at a local and regional conference and
may be used in a journal article submission.
Participation in this research involves minimal risk. This study will not directly benefit participants,
however, this data provides important information on important topics currently influencing young
childrens development.
If you have any questions or concerns about this survey or research study, please contact the
primary investigator, Dr. Lisa Grinde at lisa.grinde@loras.edu. If you have any questions about your
rights as a participant in research studies, please contact Dr. Kathrin Parks, Director of the Loras
College Institutional Review Board, at Kathrin.Parks@loras.edu.
By completing and submitting this survey, you are indicating your consent to participate in this
study.

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Appendix B: Survey Instrument

Demographics:
1.Age: _______
2.Gender:

Male

Female

3.Ethnic origin:
Asian/Pacific Islander
Black or African American
Hispanic or Latino
Native American or American Indian
White
Other
4. How many children do you have? ______
5. The age of your child in MONTHS (must be between 0-59 months):
6. Highest education level completed:
Some high school (no diploma)
High school graduate, diploma or the equivalent (for example: GED)
Some college credit, no degree
Trade/technical/vocational training
Associate degree
Bachelors degree
Masters degree
Professional degree
Doctorate degree
7. Current household income:
Under $25,000
$25,001 - $49,999
$50,000 - $74,999
$75,000 - $99,999
$100,000 -$149,999
$150,000-$199,999
Over $200,000
8. Occupation:

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9. The geographical location of your home:

Suburban
Urban
Rural
10. Marital Status:
Single, never married
Married or domestic partnership
Widowed
Divorced
Separated
11. How many televisions do you currently have in your home? _____
12. How many cell/i-phones do you currently have in your home? _____
13. How many computer/laptop/i-pad devices do you currently have in your home? ______
14. Does the main vehicle your child travels in have a DVD player? Yes No
15. Does your child have a tv in his/her bedroom? Yes No
Please answer the following questions on a scale of 1 (Not at all necessary) to 5 (Absolutely
necessary) and write your response on the space provided.
1
2
3
4
5
Not at all
Neutral
Absolutely
necessary
necessary
1) How necessary is it for todays infants and toddlers (ages 0-36 mos) to engage in play
involving technology?____
2) How necessary is it for todays infants and toddlers (ages 0-36 mos) to engage in outdoor
play in natural environments?____
3) How necessary is it for todays preschoolers (ages 3-5 years) to engage in play involving
technology?____
4) How necessary is it for todays preschoolers (ages 3-5 years) to engage in outdoor play in
natural environments?____
5) How necessary is it for todays school age children (ages 6-12) to engage in play/activities
involving technology?____
6) How necessary is it for todays school age children (ages 6-12) to engage in outdoor
play/activities? _____
7) How necessary is it for todays adolescents (ages 13-18) to engage in activities involving
technology?____

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8) How necessary is it for todays adolescents (ages 13-18) to engage in outdoor

play/activities? ____

Please answer the following questions on a scale of 1 (Not at all dangerous) -5 (Extremely
dangerous) and write your response on the space provided.
1
2
3
4
5
Not at all
Neutral
Extremely
dangerous
dangerous
1) How dangerous is it for todays infants and toddlers (ages 0-36 mos) to engage in play
involving technology?____
2) How dangerous is it for todays infants and toddlers (ages 0-36 mos) to engage in outdoor
play in natural environments?____
3) How dangerous is it for todays preschoolers (ages 3-5 years) to engage in play involving
technology?____
4) How dangerous is it for todays preschoolers (ages 3-5 years) to engage in outdoor play in
natural environments?____
5) How dangerous is it for todays school age children (ages 6-12) to engage in play/activities
involving technology?____
6) How dangerous is it for todays school age children (ages 6-12) to engage in outdoor
play/activities? _____
7) How dangerous is it for todays adolescents (ages 13-18) to engage in activities involving
technology?____
8) How dangerous is it for todays adolescents (ages 13-18) to engage in outdoor
play/activities? ____
Nature Relatedness Scale Instructions: For each of the following, please rate the extent to which
you agree with each statement, using the scale from 1 to 5 as shown below. Please respond as
you really feel, rather than how you think most people feel.
1
2
3
4
5
Disagree
Disagree a little
Neither agree
Agree a little
Agree
strongly
strongly
1. I enjoy being outdoors, even in unpleasant weather. ____
2. Some species are just meant to die out or become extinct.
3. Humans have the right to use natural resources any way we want. ____
4. My ideal vacation spot would be a remote, wilderness area. ____

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5. I always think about how my actions affect the environment. ____

6. I enjoy digging in the earth and getting dirt on my hands. ____
7. My connection to nature and the environment is a part of my spirituality. ____
8. I am very aware of environmental issues. ____
9. I take notice of wildlife wherever I am. ____
10. I dont often go out in nature. ____
11. Nothing I do will change problems in other places on the planet. ____
12. I am not separate from nature, but a part of nature. ____
13. The thought of being deep in the woods, away from civilization, is frightening. ____
14. My feelings about nature do not affect how I live my life. ____
15. Animals, birds and plants should have fewer rights than humans. ____
16. Even in the middle of the city, I notice nature around me. ____
17. My relationship to nature is an important part of who I am. ____
18. Conservation is unnecessary because nature is strong enough to recover from any human
impact. ____
19. The state of non-human species is an indicator of the future for humans. ____
20. I think a lot about the suffering of animals. ____
21. I feel very connected to all living things and the earth. ____
Using the following possible responses, please answer the following questions.
0-15 minutes 16-30 minutes

31 minutes-1 hour

2-3 hours

4-6 hours

more than 7 hours

Approximately how many hours per day during a typical weekday does your child spend on the
following:
Outdoor play
Television watching
Phone and/or i-pad use
Computer/laptop use
Approximately how many hours per day during a typical Saturday does your child spend on the
following:
Outdoor play
Television watching
Phone and/or i-pad use
Computer/laptop use
Approximately how many hours per day during a typical weekday do you spend on the following:
Outdoor activities
Television watching
Phone and/or i-pad use
Computer/laptop use
Approximately how many hours per day during a typical Saturday do you spend on the following:
Outdoor activities
Television watching

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Phone and/or i-pad use

Computer/laptop use

OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
A. What are your top three concerns about young children (36 months and younger) playing
outdoors in the natural world?
B. What are your top three concerns about young children (36 months and younger) using
technological devices?
C. What do you believe are the top three benefits playing outdoors in the natural world provides for
young children under the age of 3?
D. What do you believe are the top three benefits of young children under the age of 3 using
technological devices?
E. What rules do you have, if any, regarding the use of technological devices by your young child?
F. What rules do you have, if any, regarding outdoor play time for your young child?
Thank you for your participation in this survey.