Money Matters: Take Charge! Project Database
This study requires that your data be entered and kept in a specific database along with the data from all other participants. The project database management framework has been approved by the CERUL for 2025 and is identified by number 2021-481 CG R-3 / 05-02-2025.
Given the longitudinal nature of the study over several decades, the CÉRUL has made a requirement that the researchers create a database. The database will be used to collect and store your data and that of the other participants. Whether you agree to take part in the study a single time or multiple times over the years, your data will be entered and securely stored in the database.
The project database will be kept on highly secure servers at Université Laval. It will contain the following information:
- Consent to participate in the Money Matters: Take Charge! project and project database
- Answers to the survey
- Email address provided to receive reminders after an extended break or if you ended your questionnaire without completing it – Your email address will be deleted immediately after you are done filing your questionnaire.
- Email address, first name, last name, postal address and phone number provided to take part again in the study in future (longitudinal study) – Your information will be kept in a separate file from your data and will not allow you to be identified.
- The identification code that will be used to make your data anonymous if you have agreed to participate in the project again in the future (longitudinal study) and provided your contact information for this purpose. This code will be kept in a separate file from your data and your information and will be used to re-identify you to make it possible to send you invitations to participate again the future.
The database is your assurance that your data will be secure. Your data includes your consent to participate in the study and the database, your answers, and your information along with the identification code for keeping your data anonymous, if you agree to provide your contact information to participate in the study again in future. If you do agree, you will receive an invitation each time with full details (time period, link to questionnaire, etc.). The database will store your email address temporarily and securely so that you can be included in the draw, then it will be destroyed 120 days after the draw.
For researchers, the database provides a way to compare each data set to the data they collected previously and to draw conclusions about the state of the situation among young people who, like you, are aged 15 to 19. The database will also allow researchers to track participant responses over time and make observations about how the situation has evolved (longitudinal study).
The database is exclusively for the on financial literacy of the youth aged 15 to 19. The data it contains will not be used for any other research or by any other researchers.
Data will be kept for a maximum of 50 years from the start of the study on November 1, 2025. Your data will be kept until October 31, 2075, at the latest. After this date, all data will be destroyed.
Email addresses, if provided for reminders only, will be deleted the day after the current project ends, i.e., on December 1 and in the interim will be stored securely in the data file.
Voluntary opt-out
You may choose to opt out of the project at any time after you have submitted your responses, so long as you have provided an email address for future contact (longitudinal study). The address makes it possible to reidentify you in the database (using the code associated with you) and to remove you from the project. All opt-out requests must be sent by email to the principal investigator at moneymatters@fsa.ulaval.ca. If you opt out, you will not receive future invitations to participate in the study.
If you have provided an email address to receive reminders to complete your questionnaire, you will be able to withdraw before December 1 of the current year of the survey. As previously mentioned, email addresses collected for this purpose will be destroyed on December 1 of the current year. It will not be no longer possible to identify your for such a withdrawal afterwards. All opt-out requests must be sent by email to the principal investigator at moneymatters@fsa.ulaval.ca.
If you have agreed to participate in the survey but did not leave an email address, it will be impossible to opt out. Your participation will be anonymous (no email address to track you) and will end on October 31, 2075 (the end date of the project and database).
Data destruction
When opting out, you may also request to have your data destroyed if you wish. You must do so at the time of opting out, because after that it will be impossible to reidentify you and retrieve your data. In such a case, your data will be counted as anonymous and kept until 2074 when the database expires.
The database you are invited to participate in is for the Money Matters: Take Charge! project. If you agree to participate in the longitudinal portion, the researchers will depersonalize your data (your email address will be replaced with a code that will allow you to be reidentified for future surveys), which will allow your data to be stored under the strict rules described above. Despite this, there is still a very small but real risk of reidentification, since your data—even in its raw state—could be recognizable as yours based on your answers, even indirectly and even if your data is encoded.