Health Canada Survey: Tobacco & Alcohol Use
Barriere Secondary School has been selected to participate in the Health Canada 2021-2022 Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey (CSTADS). As a parent of a student who is eligible to participate in the survey, this letter provides an introduction to the project as well as important information about the survey and consent process.
Throughout the 2021-2022 school year, this important survey will once again take place. The survey gathers information about health and health-related behaviours among Canadian youth, and is administered to a sample of students in grades 7 to 12 (Secondary I to V in Quebec) across Canada every two years.
Students in eligible grades at Barriere Secondary School has been asked to participate in this survey. The CSTADS project is funded by Health Canada and has the support of your provincial Ministry of Education, school board (where applicable), and school.
INFORMATION ABOUT CSTADS:
· CSTADS is a survey of students in grades 7 to 12 (Secondary I to V in Quebec).
· On a date selected by the school, students will complete the survey in the classroom under the supervision of a teacher.
· The survey asks students questions about tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, and other drug use, as well as bullying.
· The participation of students who do not use substances is just as important for this study as those who do.
· It will take students about 30-40 minutes to complete the survey.
· Students under the age of consent (18) must have the permission of a parent/guardian to participate in the survey.
· Student participation is voluntary, and any student can refuse to take part in the survey, withdraw, or decline to answer survey questions at any time with no penalty.
· Although there are no anticipated risks from participation in this study, you should be aware that taking part in the survey may expose a student to information on topics which are new to them.
· A PDF version of the survey is available at www.info-cstads.ca should you wish to review it prior to the survey administration.
· No student names will appear with, or be linked to, the answers provided on the survey.
· After completing the survey, each student will place their survey directly into an envelope under the supervision of a teacher, and the envelope will be sealed at the end of the survey administration in their classroom.
· The contractor for the survey, CCI Research Inc., will be responsible for processing and storing the data.
· The school will receive a report that outlines key results.
· All results generated from the survey data will only be reported in groups (e.g., grade, sex, province) to protect the confidentiality of all participating students. Previous national and provincial results for 2018- 2019 are available at: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/canadian-student-tobacco- alcohol-drugs-survey/2018-2019-summary.html.
· In cases where researchers believe that a student may need protection from harm, the situation must be reported by law to authorities. Although this study does not require any identifying information that could link a student to their survey, a student could include more information than asked for on the paper survey that could enable authorities to identify the student.
· Data collected through this project will be stored securely by CCI Research.
· After the data collection is complete, anonymized data will be accessible to federal and provincial governments and researchers across Canada for academic study and publications.
· Questionnaires and any student information provided with regards to opt-out requests will be destroyed two years after the completion of the survey year, along with any electronic data not required for research purposes. Survey response data may be held indefinitely.
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