This study is now closed to any new participation. Thank you to all who volunteered.
The objective of the Telling and Preserving the Stories of Survivors study was to determine what means of telling a story (that is, through video, podcast, audio clips, or written narrative) is most effective in future sexual abuse prevention programming in educational, formational, and religious leadership programming. The study focused on “training the trainers” in the United States and globally, designed help those who facilitate prevention programming.
We hope to tell these stories in various formats to determine which format might be more effective for future abuse prevention programming. Concurrently, we want to see the effects of the stories on both current and past churchgoers.
Participants were invited because they are or had been a member of a parish community worshipping in the Roman Catholic Church who had experienced the latest sexual abuse scandals in the Church. In the study, participants were asked to read and sign an informed consent agreement and complete a pre-viewing survey that assesses various variables: institutional abuse (IB), betrayal of trust, compassion, life satisfaction, health, and prosocial behavior. Then, participants read, listened to, or viewed a story which may take either 15 minutes or 60 minutes, depending on your availability. They were then asked to take a post-viewing survey, which took another 15 minutes.
We expected that participants would be in this research study for either 45 minutes or 90 minutes, depending on which option was chosen.
There were two options available:
- Option One: Pre-viewing survey for 15 minutes; seeing, hearing, or reading survivors’ stories (in one media format) for 15 minutes; post-viewing survey for 15 minutes. This option would be a time commitment of approximately 45 minutes.
- Option Two: Pre-viewing survey for 15 minutes; seeing, hearing, and reading survivors’ stories (in four media formats) for 60 minutes; post-viewing survey for 15 minutes. This option would be a time commitment of approximately 90 minutes.
For individuals that had previously experienced trauma, we expected some emotional distress resulting from a series of questions in a social-behavioral research project. We offered different possible referrals and resources in the event that this might cause a participant any distress. But we asked that potential participants discern and consider whether this type of engagement was appropriate for you at that time.
We believed that hearing and knowing a survivor’s story might help in the healing process for members of the Catholic community and those who have left the Church. It might also assist participants in becoming more empowered in dealing with this trauma. We also hoped that increasing knowledge of such stories might benefit others by helping us identify the best ways to have survivors’ stories become known and utilized in potential future prevention programming.
We gave participants $10.00 gift cards for their time and effort. Those were sent electronically. The number of gift cards was limited, and distribution ended once we met our research goals.
If you have questions, please email us at globalsafeguarding@georgetown.edu.
Institutional Review Board Approval
This research has been reviewed and approved by an Institutional Review Board (“IRB”). You may talk to the IRB at 202-687-1506 or irboard@georgetown.edu if:
- Your questions, concerns, or complaints are not being answered by the research team.
- You cannot reach the research team.
- You want to talk to someone besides the research team.
- You have questions about your rights as a research subject.
- You want to get information or provide input about this research.
How do I sign up for the study?
At this time, the study is closed to any further participation.
