Online Research Study for Type 1 Diabetes

I am a psychology student at the University of North Texas, and I am currently conducting a research thesis on Learned Helplessness in Type 1 Diabetes. It involves a short (5-10 minute) online questionnaire. If you are in the U.S., at least 18 years old, and have Type 1 Diabetes, please follow the link below if you are interested in participating. Thank you!

http://kwiksurveys.com?s=HHDMLM_2dfd6f7

UPDATE: Data collection has concluded. Thank you to everyone who participated, I truly deeply appreciate it! Also, much thanks you TuDiabetes.org for giving me the opportunity to recruit here, and for all the support they offer us.

Will be interesting to read the results...type 1 can be draining and cause big problems in terms of self-confidence if you let it, that much is true. As we all know, it is a struggle.

I am interested in why your research thinks we T1s are so depressed, have such a low image of ourselves, and from the questions, are unable to work effectivebly and be successful. I just retired with a 36 year successfull work history and a 50 year history of type 1,which include two degrees; the masters earned in 2003, or 25 years after diagnosis at 10. I was a little offended by the research standard of T1 diabetics.

The questions have a strong anti-diabetes tone and that should be examined, if you are doing a peer reviewed study. From your questions, I would think you are not, as they are very biased and will never be accepted in peer review.

Do not mean to be negative, and I applaud all T1 research, but am not convinced of you research standards.

This research/survey has been approved by the TuDiabetes Administration Team.

The questions were written with a "glass-half-empty" approach. But that's not to say a confident, effective, successful diabetic would come across as an ineffective failure, depending how he responded to each question.

I understand your complaint, Spock, but isn't it just semantics? Asking whether you consider yourself a success or a failure is ultimately the same question.

I did not write the questions. The LHS part of the survey is a previously validated measure of the psychological construct learned helplessness. It's a very simple correlational research design intended only to give insight into the subject. Under those conditions, the research standards are up to par. I am overseen by a faculty mentor and the project has IRB approval. If I were to write my own questions that were less negative, it would not be a valid measure of the construct and the results would not mean anything, so I think that the standards I have in place are more appropriate.

I did the survey!

Have to agree that the questions are phrased negatively. Of course, a respondent can disagree with the statements, but it's slanted to the negative of being a helpless failure.

I hope you don't mind my asking, but wouldn't telling the respondants that the survey is about "Learned Helplessness" lead to a bias in who responds. I don't consider myself helpless, I consider myself powerful. I would be disinclined to respond.

I'm just sayin.

Nice to hear my 11 year old was diagnosed almOst a year ago, gifted academically, competitive athlete, just scored high enough on act (explore) through duke to get into a state school… What advice do you have for her to help her continue to pursue her dreams???

Nice

You have at least one typo in the survey: "tast" when you meant "task" in the fourth or fifth question down from the top.

As a sidenote, I also think there should be a "does not apply to me" option for most of these questions.

What standards of research were used to approve this?

If I didn't say what the study was over, it would be considered "deception by omission" which is avoided in research like this because for some reason it makes things drastically more complicated. I'm just following rules.

"I'm just following rules" is a phrase that has covered a multitude of sins throughout history. But seriously, there have been many studies of many types that don't say what they are seeking to discover, or even say or imply it is something other than what it is. Sometimes that is needed to get valid results. I agree you are going to get a skewed sample and that most of us on TuD are proud of our proactive stances regarding diabetes. By using the DOC population, you are right off the bat getting a skewed sample. We may represent a cross-section of the diabetic population in terms of age, geography, class, profession, etc. But not in terms of degree of involvement in our own treatment which directly impacts your stated research subject.

I would like to point out that the research does not "think", say, or suggest anything, that's not how research works. It is testing a null hypothesis. Additionally, the participant is asked to answer the questions WITH REGARD TO DIABETES, not other things in life, so other life successes or failures should not be reflected in the responses.

I feel like a lot of people are taking offense to this survey by reading things into it that aren't there. It is simply a research question. This is an objective test to answer it. No one is making any conclusions or even speculations because it is all just data right now. I urge people to remember this, especially to avoid being offended.

I don't think you can tell people not to be offended; we all have a right to feel how we feel, and you can't say our feelings are invalid because they represent a lack of understanding of research. And if you really believe that research does not, in fact, set out to prove a hypothesis that is "what the researcher thinks or is suggesting" than they've definitely sold you a bill of goods down there in the psychology department of Texas University.

Unfortunately, I don't have the kind of resources to minimize all the possible measurement error. That would require a much lengthier time frame and a bunch of grant money, which would then be the sort of project appropriate for a doctoral thesis, not an undergraduate one. I understand the limitations of my project, but it's not like it's useless because it has them. No project is perfect, but we can still learn SOMETHING from them, even if it is nothing more than a reason to do more/less research on the subject.

My original comment was based on the negativity of the survey and the supposition that we T1s feel helpless, which I don't. I agree with Zoe that you will get a skewed sample on this board from anyone who decides to participate in the survey. If you really read the posts here, again Zoe is correct. We generally have wonderful, productive lives. When we do get frustrated, this group comes to this community to ask for ideas, and usually finds a solution. We support and sustain each other.

I went back after ARs comment and tried to take the survey, but got half way through and again gave up. The negativity is too much for me. None of the statements fit me; I strongly disagree with each one.

It is a common misconception about research that the researcher is suggesting something. It is actually proper to be objective (not think or suggest an answer). The researcher must only ask a question. The scientific method does not set out to prove a hypothesis, but rather disprove the opposite.

My previous statement was to provide more information to help prevent others from being offended. I was not telling people not to be offended, certainly everyone is entitled to their feelings.