UnACoRN Consent Page

Understanding Affirming Communities, Relationships, & Networks

What’s the UnACoRN Study about? 

Only you know your true sexuality and gender. But sometimes other people will try to influence how you feel, express, or identify yourself. We want to hear about the times when your sexual and gender feelings, expressions, or identities are doubted and denied… But also, where they’re affirmed and celebrated! 

Who can answer the UnACoRN survey?

Anyone 15-29 years old living in Canada or the U.S. can answer the survey in English or in French.

Who is doing this study and why?

This study is being conducted by researchers at Simon Fraser University (SFU). See below for more information about us! 

We want to better understand how and where young people learn about issues related to gender and sexuality. We also want to know how young people’s experiences affect how they feel about and express their gender and sexuality. We will share what we learn with school administrators, lawmakers, community organizations, healthcare providers, religious organizations, sports teams, and many others to make sure more youth feel safe and affirmed wherever they go. 

What happens if I decide to take the UnACoRN survey?

You’ll be invited to answer questions about: 

  • Your gender and sexuality 
  • Your values and beliefs about gender and sexuality 
  • The environments & situations where your gender and/or sexuality have been supported or threatened (for example, school, family, peers, religious settings)
  • Ideas for how youth can be better supported 

The survey will take about 30 minutes to complete. You can skip any questions that you don’t want to answer, with one exception: some questions are required because your answers will help us determine which questions are most applicable to you. If you don’t want to answer these questions you can simply exit the survey by clicking the ‘end survey’ button. It’s important that you click ‘end survey’ when leaving the survey early. If you don’t do this, someone else who uses your device could see your answers. If you click ‘end survey’ then no one can access your responses from your device.

You can end the survey at any time. If you stop the survey, we will keep any answers that you do provide

If you want to leave the survey and come back later to complete it, you can email us (sarah_watt@sfu.ca) for a unique link to access your partially completed responses. To protect your privacy and anonymity we will delete your email once we have helped you access the survey. 

All of your responses are confidential, meaning we won’t share your individual responses with anyone. Your responses are also anonymous, meaning that we won’t ask you to provide personal information like your name or your address. At the end of the survey you’ll be invited to provide your email address if you’d like to receive updates about the survey. This is optional. 

After you take the survey, you will also have the option of entering your name in a draw to win either a $100 gift card or a stuffed unicorn toy! If you would like to be included in the draw, we’ll ask you to provide your email address. This will be collected using a separate survey so that your survey responses remain anonymous. We will not use this email address for any other purpose and will treat it as confidential. 

What are the risks and benefits of participating?

We don’t expect that completing the survey will have any direct benefits to you. However, you’ll help to make environments safer and more supportive for youth – which means that you could benefit indirectly. 

This survey will ask you questions about experiences when your identity has been threatened, or you have experienced discrimination. Answering these types of questions can be stressful and/or emotionally painful. Each page of the survey includes a link to resources and information about emotional supports that are available. 

Please note that posting to comments sections, liking or sharing on social media or other forums about this study may identify you as a participant. We therefore suggest that if this study was made available to you via a social media site or other online forums, you do not post comments if you wish to remain anonymous.

What will you do with my information? 

Your answers will be collected using Qualtrics. All information collected using Qualtrics is stored in Canada. Learn more about Qualtrics. Once our survey is closed, we will download all of the survey responses and store these in secure, password-protected folders using SFU Vault. Only members of the research team (see below) will have access to your responses. 

We will keep your survey responses for ten years. During this time we may use your responses to answer other research questions related to gender and sexuality. Some of these responses may also be used for graduate student research and work. Only members of the research team will have access to this information. 

Who should I contact if I have complaints about the study? 

If you have any concerns about your rights as a research participant and/or your experiences while participating in this study, you may contact the SFU Office of Research Ethics at dore@sfu.ca or 778-782-6618

Who should I contact if I have questions about the study? 

If you have any questions about the study, of if you would like more information, contact Sarah Watt, Research Coordinator, at sarah_watt@SFU.ca

The research team includes: 

Dr. Travis Salway, Assistant Professor, SFU 

Stéphanie Black, Research Assistant, SFU 

Martha Gumprich, Research Assistant, MSc student, SFU 

Sarah Watt, Research Coordinator, SFU

Thiyaana Jeyabalan, Data Analyst, SFU

Andrés Delgado-Ron, Data Analyst, SFU

Learn more about our research at: https://cgshe.ca/research/community-based-cohorts-social-policy-research/reaffirm/

Consent to participate

Your participation is entirely voluntary. You can skip any questions you don’t want to answer and you can end the survey at any time. If you’d like to participate, please indicate your consent by returning to the survey and answering our consent questions.