Welcome to the Co-SPACE Australia study.

This survey is about school-aged children (aged 4 to 17 years old) who are living in Australia. 

Ethics Approval Reference: 6635/52020663515639

What is this study about?

The Co-SPACE Australia study will tell us how Australian families are coping during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, and what parents can do to help support their children’s mental health. We hope this will help us to understand the needs of families at this time. We will share the findings to help others to provide the right support. 

What does my participation involve?

Thank you for your interest in participating. You are invited to take part because you are the parent or carer of a child who is in school year K-Year 12 and you are living in Australia. 

You will be asked to answer some questions about you and your child. The questions relate to your family life and relationships, overall health and wellbeing, parenting, psychological symptoms and how you are coping during the COVID-19 crisis. The questions cover quite a lot of areas so that we can get a really good understanding of how things are for you and your family currently, which will help us better understand what kind of support parents might need. You don’t need any background knowledge and there are no right or wrong answers.

The survey should take around 15-20 minutes but you can take a break and come back to it if you wish. 

We would also like you to answer some shorter follow-up surveys (around 10 minutes) each month while social isolation is taking place, one, three and six months after children are back learning at school in a classroom environment, and/or when there are major changes in Government advice around social isolation. We will ask you for an email address so that we can contact you for the follow-up surveys. 

Do I have to take part? 

Taking part is entirely voluntary. If you do decide to take part, you may withdraw at any point during the questionnaire for any reason before submitting your answers by pressing the ‘Exit’ button/closing the browser. Asking you to repeat the survey each month will give us a good idea of whether you and your family have experienced any changes in the way that you are coping with the COVID-19 crisis. You can opt out of taking part in future surveys at any point by ignoring or unsubscribing from follow-up emails. You will then not be sent any further surveys to complete. 

How will my data be used? 

Your answers will be anonymous, and we will take all reasonable steps to make sure that they remain confidential. Your email address will be removed from the rest of the answers you give before any analysis takes place and will be deleted as soon as the study finishes. Your email address will not be passed to any third parties. 

Your anonymised data will be stored in a password-protected file and may be used in academic publications. Because data are anonymised it will not be possible to withdraw your answers after they have been submitted but you can withdraw from future surveys at any point. Your computer’s IP address will not be stored. Research data will be stored for a minimum of five years after publication or public release of the findings of the research. 

Because the data will all be anonymised, we will not be able to act upon any individual responses to the survey.

The information you give us will be analysed by academic researchers at Macquarie University and other institutions that have been approved by the research team so that we can work out the best way to support families. This study is being conducted in collaboration with the Co-SPACE UK study led by the University of Oxford. 

Who will have access to my data? 

Macquarie University is the owner and custodian of your anonymised data. Data will be used for the purpose of the research outlined above.

We would also like your permission to use your anonymised data in future studies and to share data with other researchers for international and national research collaborations (e.g. in online databases). If your data is used in any other research study, then that study will have ethics approval.  Any personal information (your email address) that could identify you will be removed or changed before files are shared with other researchers or results are made public. 

Responsible members of Macquarie University may be given access to data for monitoring and/or audit of the study to ensure we are complying with guidelines, or as otherwise required by law. 

The Chief Investigator is Dr Gemma Sicouri who is attached to the Department of Psychology at Macquarie University. The ethical aspects of this study have been approved by the NHMRC HREA and Macquarie University Human Research Ethics Committee.

What are the psychological risks of taking part?

The study is designed to minimise any psychological discomfort; however, it is possible (though unlikely) that you may experience some psychological discomfort while participating in the survey. If you become concerned or distressed in any way whilst answering the questions, you can withdraw without consequence. If you become concerned or distressed after taking part in the study or you are concerned for your child’s wellbeing, you can contact support services specific to COVID-19, such as Mindspot (1800 61 44 34) or Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800). Additional resources or information about how to access support can also be found at the website Head to Health.

How do I find out about the results? 

We will provide information about the results of this study through the Centre for Emotional Health website (MQ Centre for Emotional Health). 

Who do I contact if I have a question, concern about the study or I wish to complain? 

You may contact the researchers of this study if you have a question, concern or wish to complain. The contact researchers are Dr Gemma Sicouri (gemma.sicouri@mq.edu.au), Professor Jennie Hudson (jennie.hudson@mq.edu.au) in the Department of Psychology and Professor Liz Pellicano in the School of Education (liz.pellicano@mq.edu.au) at Maquarie University. We will do our best to answer your query. If you have a complaint, we will acknowledge your concern within 10 working days and let you know how it will be dealt with. If you remain unhappy or wish to make a formal complaint about any ethical aspect of your participation in this research, you may contact the Committee through the Director, Research Ethics & Integrity (telephone (02) 9850 7854; email ethics@mq.edu.au).  Any complaint you make will be treated in confidence and investigated, and you will be informed of the outcome.