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Ethical Issues in Participatory Research with Children and Young People

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Being Participatory: Researching with Children and Young People

Abstract

Research ethics is primarily concerned with the protection of human participants: that the research will benefit and not harm participants and that it is conducted in a way that is ethically sound. Undertaking research with children and young people often brings with it ethical concerns around the power dynamics between adult researchers and children and young people, children’s and young people’s potential vulnerability and competency and capacity to consent to participating in the research and questions around appropriate methodological approaches and methods to facilitate children’s and young people’s engagement and participation in research. Participatory research is offered as a way of increasing children’s agency and decreasing issues of power. However researchers are still called on to be reflexive to ensure ethical participatory research with children and young people.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Child Health Research, Starship Children’s Service, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Tineke Water

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  1. Tineke Water
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Correspondence to Tineke Water .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Trinity College Dublin, School of Nursing & Midwifery, Dublin, Ireland

    Imelda Coyne

  2. Edge Hill University, Faculty of Health and Social Care, Ormskirk, Lancashire, United Kingdom

    Bernie Carter

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Water, T. (2018). Ethical Issues in Participatory Research with Children and Young People. In: Coyne, I., Carter, B. (eds) Being Participatory: Researching with Children and Young People. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71228-4_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71228-4_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71227-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71228-4

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