Elizabeth Peter

oncern for the protection of research participants is heightened when studies involve those in vulnerable circumstances. Ethics reviews carried out by Research Ethics Boards (REBs) can be limited because REBs are far removed from the research and cannot adequately assess participants’ unique strengths and vulnerabilities. When participants need protection, it is often provided by research assistants (RAs) because they are the people most closely involved. Little is known, however, how RAs play their important role. In our previous work on assessing vulnerability in research ethics (Peter & Friedland, 2017) we used feminist ethics to conceptualize the care elements inherent in protecting participants. Here we use Walker’s (2003) notion of moral competency to help us understand the roles of RAs. We asked, “How do RAs understand their moral responsibilities in relation to their interactions with participants in vulnerable circumstances?” In this presentation, we describe the two main themes, along with their subthemes, that resulted from our analysis of five focus groups held with experienced RAs. The findings of this study (Friedland & Peter, 2019) suggest that RAs have an important, but largely, unrecognized, role in protecting participants in vulnerable circumstances. While RAs who do this work appear to possess a variety of moral competencies, they would benefit from better preparation for their roles, and more support from the principal investigators who employ them. Keywords: Vulnerable, Research Associates, Moral Compass