What steps can be taken to lessen the potential detrimental impact of social programs on participants? What other ethical issues should evaluation researchers consider both in terms of social science ethics and federally mandated criteria?

What will be an ideal response?

First is the issue of randomly assigning participants some social program or benefit. One justification for this given by evaluation researchers has to do with the scarcity of these resources; second it may not be ethical simply to bar some potential participants from the programs. In this situation, evaluation researchers may test alternative treatments or provide some alternative benefit while the treatment is being denied; ethical concerns must also be given special attention when evaluation research involves members of vulnerable populations as subjects. To conduct research on children, parental consent usually is required before the child can be approached directly about the research; alter the group allocation ratios to minimize the number of the untreated control group; use the minimum sample size required to be able to adequately test the results; test just parts of new programs rather than the entire program; compare treatments that vary in intensity (rather than presence or absence); vary treatments between settings rather than among individuals within a setting.