Alternative contacts
Have you been asked to be an alternate contact of a study member? Find out what that means.
Why did I receive this information?
One of our study participants has nominated you as their alternative contact. You may also have been provided with our brochure.
As a study participant’s alternative contact, you will not be asked to participate in the study directly. However, if we cannot contact the study participant, we may contact you and ask you to confirm their contact details or pass on a message that we are trying to contact them.
As the study follows the same people over time (it is longitudinal) we cannot replace participants. Therefore, it is important that we find participants who may have moved house or changed phone numbers and forgotten to tell us. To ensure that we do not lose contact with our study participants, we ask them to provide Growing Up in Australia with alternative contacts - that is you.
Because you have been nominated by a participant, your details will be kept on file until the next round of interviews. We will then confirm with the study participant whether you are still the primary alternative contact and update any contact details that may have changed. At any time, you may contact Growing Up in Australia to update or remove your details.
What if I don’t want to be contacted?
We will only contact you by phone or email if we are unable to contact the study participant.
Contact us if you do not wish to be contacted or require us to update your contact details.