Home

What is ’21 Rising?

  • A voluntary research study
  • The project is studying how social connections are related to alcohol use, other health behavior and achievements as students make their way through the last two years of college
  • Participants in the study earn money for completing online surveys

Who is ’21 Rising for?

  • All Brown students in the Class of 2021
  • Class of 2021 students who drink and don’t drink alcohol
  • Class of 2021 students who are taking classes on campus or abroad
  • Class of 2021 students whose first name ends in a vowel or consonant
  • Yup, you get it, all Class of 2021 students

Why are you so caught up in “All Class of 2021 Students”?

  • Everyone is important to the study no matter their experience, whether they are on campus or abroad, or how they spell their name
  • Studying social connections using a network approach requires the full observation of the network – it isn’t like taking a sample of a population – your class is the network and so a high proportion of involvement is necessary to do good science

What does being a participant in ’21 Rising mean?
Participants will

  • …take 5 online surveys between October 2019 and October 2021
  • …earn between $50 and $70 for completing each survey
  • …be part of something special that is unique to their class

Participants are encouraged to join throughout the study. The length of the study will vary based on enrollment time.

Participants will be asked questions about their alcohol and drug use. Will they get in trouble if they reveal that they do something illegal or against university policy?

  • The short answer is No, participants do not have to be concerned about getting in trouble for responding honestly. There are a few instances (reports of abuse, of self-inflicting harm or intent to hurt others) in which the promise of confidentiality can be broken to protect the participant or others who are in danger (see Consent for details on this).
  • The long answer is:
    • No one other than the research team has access to data collected for this study – that means Brown administrators, parents/guardians, other Brown students, or local authorities cannot access participant responses
    • Survey responses are coded by ID number. That means no identifying information (including your name) is stored with your answers
    • Data are securely stored, in password protected files on secured servers.
    • For more on confidentiality and data security, click here

This all sounds interesting, how do I join?

  • Woo-hoo!
  • You can click this link to access our consent form.
  • Read it.
  • Read it again if you need.
  • If you like the sounds of it, click on the box indicating you’d like to join.
  • And voila, you’re in.
  • If you have questions, you can contact us at 21Rising@brown.edu