Welcome!

We would be grateful for your participation in this study about your experience as an Academic working in an Australian Higher Education Institution. This research is being conducted by Chief Investigators Prof. Kimberley Norris and Dr. Sarah Dawkins, and Student Investigator Ms. Kayleigh Robertson, who is completing her Master of Clinical Psychology research project under the supervision of the Chief Investigators. 

Chief Investigator: Prof. Kimberley Norris
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Tasmania
Kimberley.Norris@utas.edu.au

Chief Investigator: Dr. Sarah Dawkins
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Tasmania
Sarah.Dawkins@utas.edu.au

Student Investigator: Ms. Kayleigh Robertson
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Tasmania
Kayleigh.Robertson@utas.edu.au 

Please read the key information below before completing this questionnaire:

1. What is the purpose of this study? 
The aim of this study is to explore the factors that impact your mental health and wellbeing in your current Academic role. This will include questions about you and your experiences as an Academic.

2. How is the study being funded?
No external funding has been received for this study.

3. What will I be asked to do?
You will be asked to complete an online survey that is expected to take less than 20 minutes. The survey is completed anonymously, and you will not be asked to provide any identifiable information.

The survey will begin with demographic questions including your age, experience working as an Academic, and caring responsibilities. The remaining survey items consist of questions about the nature of your Academic role, and its impacts on your mental health and wellbeing.

4. Are there any possible benefits from participation in this study?
The results from this research will provide a better understanding of the factors that impact mental health and wellbeing in Australian Academics and may benefit psychology researchers and organisations to provide appropriate interventions and supports for this population.

On completion of the survey, each participant can choose to enter an optional draw to receive one of six $50 giftpay vouchers. To ensure your data remains anonymous, you will be invited to follow a link to a separate survey to record your contact details for entry to the draw. 

5. Are there any possible risks from participation in this study?
While neither anticipated nor intended, it is possible that you may experience some discomfort when reflecting on the nature of your Academic role, and its impacts on your wellbeing. You will also be asked to respond to items assessing your current mental health which may also cause some discomfort. If you become uncomfortable when completing this survey, we encourage you to stop responding and exit the survey by closing the browser window. You may also wish to seek support from a range of services including your General Practitioner, beyondblue (https://www.beyondblue.org.au/), lifeline https://www.lifeline.org.au/), or a spiritual advisor. You are also welcome to contact the study researchers via the contact details provided at the beginning of this information sheet.

It is important to note that you are free to withdraw your participation at any time without any negative impacts on you.

6. What if I change my mind during or after the study?
You are free to withdraw from the study by not submitting the online survey. Your data will not be retained for use in the study if you do not click the “submit” button at the end of the survey. You may simply close the browser window at any time if you no longer wish to participate.

As this survey is completed anonymously, you will not be able to withdraw your survey data after you “submit” your survey responses.

7. What will happen to the information when this study is over?
Your responses will be stored on a secure, password protected server. We may also use your deidentified data in future studies.

The contact information you provide for the optional draw with be stored separately to the main survey data and will be destroyed after the giftpay vouchers have been allocated.

8. How will the results of the study be published?
Findings from the research may be submitted for publication in scholarly journals. If you are interested in finding out the results of the study, group-level results will be reported on the School of Psychological Sciences website: https://www.utas.edu.au/health/about-us/psychology. We will also send a summary of results to all organisations that advertised this study on our behalf. You are also welcome to email the research team to request a copy of group-level results. We anticipate that preliminary results will be available as of December 2022.

You will not be identifiable in any subsequent publication relating to this data, and only group-level data will be reported.

9. What if I have questions about this study?
If you have questions about this study you may contact the Chief Investigators, Prof. Kimberley Norris (Kimberley.Norris@utas.edu.au) and Dr. Sarah Dawkins (Sarah.Dawkins@utas.edu.au) or Student Researcher Ms. Kayleigh Robertson (Kayleigh.Robertson@utas.edu.au). 

This study has been approved by the University of Tasmania Human Research Ethics Committee. If you have concerns or complaints about the conduct of this study, you can contact the Executive Officer of the HREC (Tasmania) on (03) 6226 6254 or email human.ethics@utas.edu.au. The Executive Officer is the person nominated to receive complaints from research participants. You will need to quote H0024944.

10. How can I agree to be involved?
You can provide your consent to participate by completing the survey that follows and submitting your responses at the end. If, after commencing the survey you no longer wish to participate, you may simply close the survey window at any time prior to submitting and your responses will not be retained for use in the study.