What will happen if I take part?

If you agree to take part in this research, I will contact you to arrange an interview time by email, telephone or video chat through Microsoft Teams. 

The interview will be conducted via Microsoft Teams. 

When we start the interview, I will go through the consent form with you. I will ask you if you are willing to have the interview audio-recorded online. Then, I will conduct the interview with you. The interview will be about your life experience including the death of your parent, and economic and financial impacts on your following life. For example, I will ask questions about what your relationships with your parents were like, what happened to you at the time of the death and afterwards, what support or information you needed and what you have found helpful, or not.

While people sometimes find it helpful to talk about their story to researchers, this research is not the same thing as counselling. I will be able to give you a list of useful contacts which can be used to get more help if you want.

How long will the interview take?

This study requires us to meet once online. The time it takes for an interview varies, depending on you and how much you have to say. The interview is likely to take one to two hours. Please remember, if you want to stop the interview at any time, you can do so without giving any reason at all.

What are the possible benefits of taking part?

This study will improve our understanding of the influence of parental death on young adults. Telling your story and bereavement experience may be useful to you to think about the changes that have happened since your loss and what you might expect for your life. I hope that the data generated from all the interviews will be used to provide guidance to support services.

What are the possible disadvantage and risk of taking part?

There is the possibility that you may feel upset if I ask you questions about your loss and bereavement. This is a very normal reaction to bereavement and grief. You can always say if you do not want to answer a question in the interview and we can move on to something else. While I will try to be sensitive to the issue as much as I can, I am operating in my capacity as a researcher, not as a source of therapeutic support. If you need some professional support, please contact the following organisations that I refer to in the debriefing information.

Do I have to take part?

No. It is completely up to you to decide whether to take part. Before you decide to take part I will explain about the project and go through this information sheet with you in an informal and unrecorded chat. I will ask you for your consent and then you will sign a form. I will give you a copy of this information sheet and your signed consent form to keep. You are free to withdraw at any time during the interview and without giving a reason. Your decision to take part or not, or to take part and to withdraw will not affect any treatment or service that is being provided to you.

Who will have access to the information that I provide?

Only I and my supervisors at the University of Bath will have access to the information that you provide. All records will be treated as confidential and anything you say will be anonymized in any outputs.

What will happen to the data collected and the results of the project?

With your permission, the interview will be audio-recorded or video-recorded online so that I can correctly reflect what is discussed. Consent forms and all audio-recordings and video-recordings will be stored securely in a locked filing cabinet within my supervisor’s office at the University of Bath. The interview will be transcribed and fully anonymised. No one will be able to identify you in my PhD thesis or any outputs. The original recordings will be deleted at the end of this project. The anonymised transcripts will be stored for ten years so that I can re-use them with your explicit permission.

After the project has finished, I will provide you with a summary of the project results if you would like that. This summary will not include any identifiable information and will show the overall findings of the project.

It is anticipated that the results of this research project will be published and/or presented in a variety of forums. As noted above, in any publication and/or presentation, anything you have said will be used in such a way that you cannot be identified.

How can I withdraw from the project?

You can stop the interview at any time, with no reason given. If you wish to withdraw your data for any reason, please contact me within three weeks of your interview.

What happens if there is a problem?

If there is a problem, you can contact me, Terumi Okaku, or my academic supervisor, Dr Kate Woodthorpe (k.v.woodthorpe@bath.ac.uk). If you remain concerned you can contact a charity that provides free and confidential services to help resolve your issues. Contact details of the charities are below.

 If I require further information, who should I contact and how?

Thank you for expressing an interest in participating in this project. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you would like some more information. I will conduct this study in England and stay here for the fieldwork period. Outside of this period I am based in Japan. When I am away from your country, I can be contacted by email or online chat. The person in the picture is me. If you would like to join the study or would like to know more about it, please contact me.

 Who has reviewed the project?

This project has been agreed by the University of Bath, Social Science Research Ethics Committee (SSREC). Reference number : S22-146.

Reference: Rebecca Wise, Secretary to the Committee: ssrec@bath.ac.uk  01225 384714

University of Bath privacy notice

The University of Bath privacy notice can be found here.