College Student Political Identity Development

To be eligible to participate, you must be over 18 years of age and currently enrolled at a U.S. college or university. You should also be willing to talk about your political beliefs.

As a potential participant, you will first complete a short screening survey. Once your eligibility is confirmed, you will be contacted to schedule a 45-60 minute interview online through Zoom. You will have the opportunity to review your interview transcripts and make changes if desired. You may be asked to participate in a short (30 minute) follow up conversation in Spring 2025. 

Your privacy and confidentiality are important to us.  The following procedures will be used to protect the confidentiality of your study records, including your responses to the screening survey, your interview recording, and transcripts. Only the researcher will have access to the recordings, and they will be used for transcription purposes. The recordings will be deleted after transcriptions are complete or within one year of recording, whichever is sooner. You will have the opportunity to review the transcripts for accuracy. 

The researchers will keep all study records and identifying information on Microsoft OneDrive, which is password-protected. All electronic files containing identifiable information will be hosted on computers that also have password protection to prevent access by unauthorized users. Only the members of the research staff will have access to the passwords. At the conclusion of this study, the researchers may publish their findings. Information will be presented in summary format, and you will not be identified in any publications or presentations.

If you have further questions about this project or if you have a research-related problem, you may contact the researcher, Musbah Shaheen (shaheen@umass.edu). If you have any questions concerning your rights as a research subject, you may contact the University of Massachusetts Amherst Human Research Protection Office (HRPO) at (413) 545-3428 or humansubjects@ora.umass.edu.