TABLE 1—

Harms, Benefits, and Regrets Associated With Participation in Sensitive Research: Summary of Adolescent and Adult Studies Conducted From 1997 to 2013

Study	Type of Violence Assessed	Harms	Benefits	Regrets	Do Victims or Nonvictims Report More Harms, Benefits, or Regrets?	Do Perpetrators or Nonperpetrators Report More Harms, Benefits, or Regrets?	Which Gender Reports More Harms, Benefits, or Regrets?	Do Younger Or Older Participants Report More Harms, Benefits, or Regrets?
Studies among adolescents
Langhinrichsen-Rohling et al.26 (2006)	Physical and sexual abuse	2.5%–7.5% upset	NR	NR	Physical and sexual abuse victims reported being upset	NR	Female participants reported interest	NR
Zajac et al.33 (2011)	Physical assault and abuse, sexual assault, witnessed community and parental violence	5.7% distressed; 0.2% remained upset; 0.1% requested counseling (baseline); attrition rate: 29% (12-month follow-up)	NR	NR	Physical and sexual abuse victims reported distress	NR	Female participants reported distress	NR
Priebe et al.35 (2010)	Sexual abuse	17.4% reported unpleasant feelings; 9.7% said that such questions should not be asked; 11% said that such questions can have an unfortunate impact; 17.7% said that the information collected was too private	NR	NR	Sexual abuse victims reported discomfort	Authors did not report on perpetrators’ risk of harm separately from victims’ risk of harm	NR	NR
Ybarra et al.36 (2009)	Verbal, physical, and sexual abuse	23% upset (baseline); 77% of the participants did not complete the survey and 70% did complete the survey (13-month follow-up)	NR	NR	No differences with respect to participants’ reports of being upset	No differences with respect to participants’ reports of being upset	Female participants reported being upset	Younger participants reported being upset
Studies among adults
Black et al.11 (2006)	Family and sexual violence, IPV	Subgroup 1a: 15.9% were upset from recalling violence; subgroup 2b: 11.4% were upset	More than 95% of subgroup 1 and 92.4% of subgroup 2 believed that such questions should be asked	NR	No differences between subgroups 1 and 2 regarding whether such questions should be asked	NR	Women in subgroups 1 and 2 reported being upset; no differences between groups in belief that such questions should be asked	NR
Carlson et al.12 (2003)	Childhood physical and sexual abuse	70% reported low levels of distress; 24% were very/extremely upset; 6.6% stopped the interview because they were upset	51% reported that research participation was somewhat useful; of the 24% who were highly upset, 37% found reported that participation was somewhat useful	NR	Victims of higher (vs lower) levels of trauma reported being upset	NR	NR	NR
Decker et al.13 (2011)	Assessment 1: child maltreatment. Assessment 2: emotionally evocative photographs and sounds. Assessment 3: 1-week follow-up	1.3%–27.8% reported the experience as a bother; 8.9%–25.3% reported no bother	All assessments: 26.6%–30.4% reported increased self-insight	NR	Assessment 1: victims reported the experience as a bother. Assessments 2 and 3: nonvictims reported being bothered by painful insights about others. Assessments 1 and 3: victims reported the research as helpful. All assessments: victims reported distress but also reported that the research was helpful	NR	NR	NR
Gekoski et al.14 (2009)	Experiences of secondary victimization	50% upset/distressed	All gained something positive	No regret	NR	NR	NR	NR
Griffin et al.15 (2003)	Physical assault, rape, domestic violence	Acute physical/sexual assault survivors reported that research participation was not very distressing; domestic violence survivors: 42% reported strong/very strong emotions	Acute physical/sexual assault survivors reported that research participation was largely interesting	5% of acute physical/sexual assault survivors reported regret; 2% of domestic violence survivors reported regret	NR	NR	NR	NR
Kuyper et al.16 (2010)	Sexual abuse	16.5% were feeling down; 7.8% were sad; 3.5% needed help	96.5% reported positive feelings	NR	Sexual coercion victims reported distress and a need for help but also positive feelings	NR	Women reported distress	Younger participants reported positive feelings
Newman et al.17 (1999)	Child maltreatment	7% reported increase and 3% reported decrease in unexpected upset (48 hours after follow-up)	24% reported benefits at baseline, 86% at 3–12-month follow-up, 74% 48 hours after follow-up	0.09% reported regret at 3–12-month follow-up; no regret 48 hours after follow-up	Sexual abuse victims reported unexpected upset	NR	NR	NR
Walker et al.18 (1997)	Early childhood and adult forms of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse and neglect	13% unexpectedly upset	More than 25% gained something positive; 13% reported no gain	76% reported no regret; 5% reported regret	Victims of the combined types of abuse reported distress	NR	NR	NR
DePrince and Chu20 (2008)	Interpersonal abuse (type not specified)	Participants’ mean personal benefit scores were greater than their mean emotional reaction and perceived drawback scores	Participants’ mean personal benefit scores were greater than their mean emotional reaction and perceived drawback scores	NR	NR	NR	Men reported regret and a negative experience; women believed that the research was important	Older participants reported unexpected and negative emotions but also benefits
Cook et al.21 (2011)	Comparison of a control questionnaire without sensitive questions with 5 questionnaires involving increasing levels of sensitive questions (ranging from stressful events to sexually violating events)	Low negative affect reported across all questionnaires	Participants administered the control questionnaire reported higher levels of positive affect than those completing the other questionnaires	No regrets reported across any questionnaires	NR	NR	NR	NR
Ferrier-Auerbach et al.22 (2009)	Effects of trauma survey (questions on combat/war exposure) vs nontrauma survey	Mean scores for sadness, tension, and unexpected upset were higher among participants who completed the trauma survey	No differences between trauma and nontrauma survey in mean levels of perceived gain	No differences between trauma and nontrauma survey in mean levels of regret	NR	NR	NR	NR
Sikweyiya and Jewkes23 (2012)	Childhood emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, physical and sexual IPV, sexual harassment, domestic violence	Some reported pain, but it was short lived and not overwhelming	Majority reported positive affect	No regret	Victims reported that the experience was positive	Authors did not report on perpetrators’ risk of harm separately from victims’ risk of harm	Men reported discomfort; women reported feeling empoweredc	NR
DePrince and Freyd24 (2004)	Physical and sexual abuse	Mean scores on a 5-point scale (neutral to distress)	Most thought the research was important; importance was rated greater than distress	NR	All subgroups thought the research was important	NR	Women in subgroups 1d and 2e thought that it was a good idea to include such a measure in psychology; men in subgroup 2 reported that the questions were less distressing than daily life; women reported that the research was important for psychologists	NR
Schwerdtfeger and Goff25 (2008)	Child and adult abuse, rape	NR	Victims reported favorable reactions	NR	Victims of higher (vs lower) levels of abuse reported that the study was personally meaningful; no differences between groups in emotionality, insight, or discomfort	NR	NR	NR
Carter-Visscher et al.27 (2007)	Assessment 1: childhood physical and sexual abuse. Assessment 2: unrelated to childhood trauma. Assessment 3: 1-week follow-up	Low levels of distress over all 3 sessions	Assessment 1: 100% reported that research participation was somewhat interesting. Assessments 2 and 3: 95% reported that participation was somewhat interesting	Assessment 1: no regret. Assessment 2: 4% reported regret. Assessment 3: 6% reported regret	Victims of higher (vs lower) levels of childhood physical and sexual abuse of abuse) reported that the study had an “impact”f; no differences between groups with respect to willingness to take part and benefits	NR	NR	NR
Rojas and Kinder28 (2007)	Childhood sexual abuse	NR	NR	NR	No differences between victims in anxiety, anger, or depression	NR	No differences in adverse effects	NR
Ruzek and Zatzick29 (2000)	Physical assault/abuse, rape, molestation, child neglect	12% reported unexpected upset; 32% reported negative reactions; 30% reported unwanted thoughts	95% reported that benefits outweighed costs; 75% reported positive experience	95% reported no regret	No differences in combined types of abuse in negative and positive responders	NR	No differences in combined types of abuse in negative and positive responders	Older participants reported being unexpectedly upset
Johnson and Benight30 (2003)	Domestic violence	25% reported unexpected upset	45% reported positive gains	6% reported regret	Domestic violence victims reported being upset	NR	NR	NR
Newman et al.31 (2008)	Various forms of family violence, sexual assault, and sexual harassment	NR	NR	NR	No differences in personal satisfaction, personal benefits, emotional reactions, perceived drawbacks, or global evaluations	NR	Men reported that the experience was positive	NR
Savell et al.32 (2006)	Childhood sexual abuse	NR	NR	NR	No differences among victims in anxiety, anger, depression, or curiosity	NR	NR	NR
Campbell et al.34 (2010)	Rape, assault	4.3% reported the experience as negative	Vast majority reported positive experience	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Edwards et al.37 (2012)	Child, adolescent, and adulthood abuse, rape, or domestic violence	4.3% reported negative emotional reactions (baseline); 0% reported distress (2-month follow-up)	23.3% reported personal benefits at baseline; 19% reported personal benefits at follow-up	NR	Childhood psychological abuse/neglect and childhood physical abuse victims reported distress; no differences in reports of distress between sexual abuse victims and those exposed to domestic violence	Perpetrators of adolescent and adulthood physical, sexual, and psychological IPV reported distress	NR	NR
Hlavka et al.38 (2007)	Verbal, psychological, physical, and sexual childhood and adulthood abuse	44% of childhood sexual abuse victims did not complete the interview; 56% of childhood and adult victims did not complete the interview	12% of childhood sexual abuse victims completed the interview; 33% of child and adult victims completed the interview	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Shorey et al.39 (2013)	Childhood emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; relationship aggression: psychological, physical, and sexual aggression, dating violence	Emotional reactions (mean = 13.53; SD = 4.51); perceived drawbacks (mean = 19.95; SD = 5.04)	Personal benefits (mean = 15.01; SD = 4.66)	NR	No differences in personal satisfaction, personal benefits, emotional reactions, perceived drawbacks, or global evaluations among victims of childhood emotional and physical abuse, psychological and sexual abuse, and dating violence; childhood sexual abuse victims reported negative emotional reactions and perceived drawbacks; physical aggression victims reported negative perceived drawbacks	NR	NR	NR
Shorey et al.40 (2011)	Relationship aggression: psychological, physical, and sexual aggression, dating violence	Men: emotional reactions (mean = 15.39; SD = 3.54); perceived drawbacks (mean = 21.54; SD = 4.38) Women: emotional reactions (mean = 15.36; SD = 4.17); perceived drawbacks (mean = 21.61; SD = 5.41)	Men: personal benefits (mean = 12.66; SD = 3.59) Women: personal benefits (mean = 12.52; SD = 3.77)	NR	No differences in personal satisfaction, personal benefits, emotional reactions, perceived drawbacks, or global evaluations among women who experienced dating violence; female physical aggression victims perceived drawbacks; Male psychological and physical aggression victims reported personal benefits and marginally more emotional reactions	Female physical aggression perpetrators reported personal benefits; female sexual aggression perpetrators reported perceived drawbacks; male psychological and physical aggression perpetrators reported personal benefits and marginally more emotional reactions; male sexual aggression nonperpetrators reported perceived drawbacks	NR	NR
Edwards et al.41 (2013)	Childhood, adolescent, and adulthood psychological, physical, and sexual abuse, domestic violence	7.7% reported negative emotional reactions (baseline); 2.1% reported distress (2-month follow-up)	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

Note. IPV = intimate partner violence; NR = not reported. Studies are arranged by date in ascending order (details of all studies are presented in Tables S3 and S4). Values are the percentages of participants reporting, or mean levels of, benefit, harm, and regret (or other indicators of harm, benefit, or regret such as assessment completion). Unless specified, all reports were assessed during or immediately after study completion.

^aICARIS-2 Injury and Control Risk Survey (a national, cross-sectional random-digit-dialing telephone survey of English- and Spanish-speaking adults).

^bSIPV pilot study (an annual telephone survey).

^cThis was a qualitative study and male and female participants were not directly compared.

^dUndergraduate students.

^eCommunity members.

^fImpact was not defined by the authors.