Skip to main content

Rights-Based Research with Children: Principles and Practice

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Methodological Approaches

Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 2))

Abstract

Research focusing on children and childhood has a long history, dating at least to the early twentieth century. Over the course of more than a century, children have variously been positioned as the objects, subjects and participants of research – and more recently, as bearers of human rights and actors within the research process. Research with children does not occur in a vacuum, but both reflects and shapes the ways in which children are positioned within a society. This chapter explores the ways in which recognition of children’s human rights has influenced thinking about and approaches to research with children. It explores what rights-based research means for research ethics and methodology and for child-adult relations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abebe, T. (2009). Multiple methods, complex dilemmas: Negotiating socio-ethical spaces in participatory research with disadvantaged children. Children’s Geographies, 7(4), 451–465.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abebe, T., & Bessell, S. (2014). Advancing ethical research with children: Critical reflections on ethical guidelines. Children’s Geographies, 12(1), 126–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. New York: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alderson, P. (1995). Listening to children: Children, Social Research and Ethics. London: Barnardos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alderson, P. (2000). Young children’s rights: Exploring beliefs, principles and practice. London: Save the Children/Jessica Kingsley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alderson, P. (2012). Rights respecting research: a commentary on ‘the right to be properly researched: Research with children in a messy, real world. Children’s Geographies, 2009, 7(4). Children’s Geographies, 10(2), 233–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alderson, P., & Morrow, V. (2011). The ethics of research with children and young people: A practical handbook. Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Archard, D. (1993). Children: Rights and childhood. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aries, P. (1962). Centuries of childhood. A social history of family life (trans: Baldick, R.). New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beazley, H., & Ennew, J. (2006). Participatory methods and approaches: Tackling the two tyrannies. In V. Desai & R. Potter (Eds.), Doing development research (pp. 189–199). London: Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Beazley, H., Bessell, S., Ennew, J., & Waterson, R. (2005). What children say: Results of comparative research on the physical and emotional punishment of children in southeast Asia and the Pacific. Stockholm: Save the Children Sweden (Southeast Asia and the Pacific).

    Google Scholar 

  • Beazley, H., Bessell, S., Ennew, J., & Waterson, R. (2006). What children say: results of comparative research on physical and emotional punishment of children in southeast Asia and the Pacific. Bangkok: Save the Children Sweden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beazley, H., Bessell, S., Ennew, J., & Waterson, R. (2009). The right to be properly researched: Research with children in a messy, real world. Children’s Geographies, 7(4), 365–378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beazley, H., Bessell, S., Ennew, J., & Waterson, R. (2011). How are the human rights of children related to research methodology? In A. Invernizzi & J. Williams (Eds.), The human rights of children: From visions to implementation (pp. 159–178). Farnham: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bessell, S. (2006). ‘Ethical Research with Children: The Time for Debate is Now’. Children, Communities Families Australia, 1(1).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bessell, S. (2009). Research with children: Thinking about method and methodology. In Involving children in research (pp. 17–23). Sydney: ARACY and the NSW Commission for Children.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bluebond-Langner, M., & Korbin, J. E. (2008). Challenges and opportunities in the anthropology of childhoods: An introduction to “Children, Childhoods, and Childhood Studies”. American Anthropologist, 109(2), 241–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyden, J., & Ennew, J. (1997). Children in focus: A manual for participatory research with children. Stockholm: Rädda Barnen/Save the Children.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. The American Psychologist, 32(7), 513–531.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, T. D. (1992). The rights of the minor: As person, as child, as juvenile, as future adult. International Journal of Law and the Family, 6, 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chakraborty, K. (2009). ‘The Good Muslim Girl’: Conducting qualitative participatory research to understand the lives of young Muslim women in the bustees of Kolkata. Children’s Geographies, 7(4), 421–432.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chambers, R. (1983). Rural development: Putting the last first. Essex/New York: Longmans Scientific and Technical Publishers/Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christensen, P., & James, A. (eds) (2000) Research with Children: Perspectives and Practices. London: Falmer Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christensen, P., & Prout, A. (2002). Working with ethical symmetry in social research with children. Childhood, 9(4), 477–497.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crotty, M. (1998). The foundations of social research: Meaning and perspective in the research process. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ding, Y., Xu, X., Wang, Z., Li, H., & Wang, W. (2012). Study of mother-infant attachment patterns and influence factors in Shanghai. Early Human Development, 88(5), 295–300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donnelly, J. (2013). Universal human rights in theory and practice. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ennew, J. (1982). Family structure, unemployment and child labour in Jamaica. Development and Change, 13(4), 551–563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ennew, J. (1994). Street and working children: A guide to planning. London: Save the Children.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ennew, J., & Morrow, V. (1994). Out of the mouths of babes’. In E. Verhellen & F. Speisschaert (Eds.), Children’s rights: monitoring issues, Antwerp, Mys and Breesce.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ennew, J., with Abebe, T., Bangyai, R., Karapituck, Trine Kjørholt, A., Noonsup T., with additional material from Beazley, H., Bessell, S., Daengchart-Kushanoglu, P., Waterson, R. (2010). The right to be properly researched: How to do rights-based, scientific research with children. Bangkok: Knowing Children.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ennew, J., & Plateau, D. P. (2004). How to research the physical punishment of children. Bangkok: Save the Children.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ennew, J., & Young, P. (1981). Child labour in Jamaica: A general review. London: Anti-Slavery Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farson, R. (1974). Birthrights. Oxford: Macmillian.

    Google Scholar 

  • Firestone, S. (1970). The dialectic of sex. New York: William Morrow and company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, M. (1997). The moral status of children: Essays on the rights of the child. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham, A., Powell, M., Taylor, N., Anderson, D., & Fitzgerald, R. (2013). Ethical research involving children. Florence: UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, B. (1979). Knowledge as a commodity and participatory research. Prospects: Quarterly Review of Education, 9(4), 393–408.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hendrick, H. (1997). Children, childhood and English society, 1880–1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, M. (1997), ‘Participatory Research with Children’. Child and Family Social Work, 2(3), 171–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holt, J. (1974). Escape from childhood. New York: E.P. Dutton and Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holt, L. (2004). The ‘voices of children: De-centring empowering research relations. Children’s Geographies, 2(1), 13–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • James, A. (2007). Giving voice to children’s voices: Practices and problems, pitfalls and potentials. American Anthropologist, 109(2), 261–272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • James, A., & Prout, A. (Eds.). (1997). Constructing and reconstructing childhood (2nd ed.). London: Falmer Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jin, M. K., Jacobvitz, D., Hazen, N., & Jung, S. H. (2012). Maternal sensitivity and infant attachment security in Korea: Cross-cultural validation of the strange situation. Attachment & Human Development, 14(1), 33–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kellett, M. (2005). How to develop children as researchers. London: Paul Chapman Educational Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, R. (2007). Ethnographic studies of childhood: A historical overview. American Anthropologist, 109(2), 247–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lundy, L., & McEnvoy, L. (2012). Children’s rights and research processes: Assisting children to (in)formed views. Childhood, 19(1), 129–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malinowski, B. (1929). The sexual life of savages in North Western Melanesia. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, M. (1928). Coming of age in Samoa. New York: William Morrow.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrow, V. (1999). ‘Conceptualising social capital in relation to the well-being of children and young people: a critical review’. The Sociological Review, 47(4), 744–765.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrow, V. (2001). Using qualitative methods to elicit young people’s perspectives on their environments: Some ideas for community health initiatives. Health Education Research, 16(3), 255–268.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrow, V., & Alderson, P. (2011). The ethics of research with children and young people: A practical handbook. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrow, V., & Richards, M. (1996). The ethics of social research with children: An overview. Children and Society, 10(2), 90–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Neill, O. (1988). Children’s rights and children’s lives. Ethics, 98(3), 445–463.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, H. (2008). Listening to children: And hearing them. In P. Christensen & A. James (Eds.), Research with children: Perspectives and practice (2nd ed.). New York: Falmer Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robson, E., Porter, G., Hampshire, K., & Bourdillon, M. (2009). ‘Doing it right?’: Working with young researchers in Malawi to investigate children, transport and mobility. Children’s Geographies, 7(4), 467–480.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schildkrout, E. (1978). Age and gender in Hausa society: Socio-economic roles of children in urban Kano. In J. S. La Fontaine (Ed.), Age and sex as principles of social differentiation. New York: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skelton, T. (2008). Research with children and young people: Exploring the tensions between ethics, competence and participation. Children’s Geographies, 6(1), 21–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toren, C. (2007). Sunday lunch in Fiji: Continuity and transformation in ideas of the household. American Anthropologist, 109(2), 285–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Twum-Danso, A. (2009). ‘Situating participatory methodologies in context: the impact of culture on adult–child interactions in research and other projects’, Children’s Geographies, 7(4), 379–389.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodhead, M., & Faulkner, D. (2008). Subjects, objects or participants? Dilemmas of psychological research with children. In P. Christensen & A. James (Eds.), Research with children: Perspectives and practices (2nd ed., pp. 10–39). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zelizer, V. (1985). Pricing the priceless child: The changing social value of children. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sharon Bessell .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this entry

Cite this entry

Bessell, S. (2017). Rights-Based Research with Children: Principles and Practice. In: Evans, R., Holt, L. (eds) Methodological Approaches. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 2. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-020-9_17

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics