Research With Children and Young People, Essay Example

Research with children and young people can be complicated, but crucial. It can advance people’s understanding of how development in so many aspects take place and the different needs that children have to grow up well. Also, such studies can contribute to theoretical debates about children developments, with their outcomes both affecting the lives of children in similar situations as those being studied, whether directly or indirectly (Cooper et al. 2014). However, even with all these benefits and purposes of conducting research of and with children and young people, it does not mean that the researcher will not meet several issues in carrying them out, from the planning stage, to the implementation stage, up to the distribution stage (Cooper 2014). Relevant issues that could arise include problems linked to ethics, consent, power relations between the researcher and the child, methodology, and the dissemination process. The legal system can also create issues for research done with children and young people. For the researcher wants to make sure their study will be at the best interests of their subjects – whether children or the young adults, it is essential for them to be mindful of these issues and address them as necessary. The purpose of this paper is to critically review these issues by analyzing studies that have been done about them.

Access

The first ethical issue associated with conducting business with children should be considered before even the research is commenced. The first question to ask by any childhood research is who are the gatekeepers for the particular research study, whether the children themselves, their parents, the social care authorities, or the childcare or educational facility administrators, among others (Kellet 2014).

In most countries, having access to children or youth participation can only be authorized by a different individual as well as institutional gatekeepers  (Kellet 2014).

For most studies, childhood researchers may have to obtain official government clearance and other legal or official requirements necessitated by individual countries. Also, educational institutions, social care, as well as healthcare organizations can require more documents from researchers with regard the nature of their study and the methods to be employed so that ethical issues can be (Kellet 2014).

These institutions, as well as the children’s parents and guardians, need to know whether the research can potentially harm the child. In light of these, conducting studies involving children and youth is associated with another layer of complexity. Researchers need to consider more than just obtaining parental consent and researchers will have to be aware of how to approach and obtain the requirements form the different authorities (Kellet 2014).

Parents and families are also not likely to readily give their consent for their children’s participation in the study regardless of how noble the intentions of the researcher is. Access is normally negotiated with their parents and families and obtaining consent does not mean the researcher can already immediately carry out the study. Both approval and denial have implications. If parents give their approval for their children’s participation, the researcher still has to ascertain whether the children themselves have been consulted and given their consent or not. Similarly, if most children who were part of the target sample are participating and some children are not because their parents denied giving their consent, the researcher still has to decide how to manage this sensitive situation. Some children who want to participate but not allowed by their parents can feel a sense of exclusion (Kellet 2014).

As a result, it can be critically concluded from these studies that even though researchers should always be guided and if possible, should always adhere to the requirements placed upon them by the local context with regard involving children in the research studies, they should still strive to make sure that the children who will take part in their studies have been given the right to decide about their participation (Bucknall 2014).

Informed Consent

Another complex issue in association with conducting research involving children and young people is getting informed consent. Informed consent for adults is easier to obtain because they are less likely to be worried about what the person is asking for their consent is likely to think, less likely to misunderstand the contents of the informed consent form and many more  (Alderson, 2014). Conversely, children can feel intimidated by the researcher, the school administrators helping the parents obtain consent, and other adults or people of authority, which could make them feel disenfranchised. Employing research assistants to interact with children could also reinforce traditional adult-child relations because they were not trained on working with children or familiar with the principles of childhood research as the main researcher.

The researcher still has to give the assistants the necessary training. Given these difficulties as well, obtaining consent should not only be done through the informed consent forms. Instead, obtaining consent should be perceived as a continuous process and regularly renegotiated on every stage or step of the research process, verbally. Some children might not have understood what was entailed from them at the start of the project, or have initially wished to participate but have quickly changed their minds in the middle of the process  (Alderson, 2014). Apart from checking if they still want to participate continuously during the research, the researcher also has to make sure that it is a top priority to make children feel comfortable with being involved as well as ending their involvement if they want to. When it comes to babies and toddlers, researchers must be on a lookout for non-verbal cues about no longer wanting to participate since they obtaining their informed consent might not yet be that possible (Alderson, 2014).

The informed consent form being in the written form could also raise some problems for children participants. In some culture, oral is much better than written. Because children’s consent is going to obtain from different people and agencies surrounding them, then the culture of the said community have to be considered. Second, some young people may only be articulate when it comes to speaking but not when reading and writing. If the informed consent is going to be in the written form, then this might lead to some misunderstandings as well as meet with some reluctance from the participants to provide consent. Apart from these issues, another consideration that childhood researchers have to address is dissemination. Even though the target audience of the research are fellow scholars and adults, it is crucial that research participants also could see and understand the results (Alderson, 2014).  Children and young people naturally like to see their involvement and investment in the project paid off. As such, the researcher still needs to ponder upon the format, the presentations, the materials, and much more when writing the research and presenting the final output (Alderson, 2014).

Freedom to Discuss

Dalli and Te One (2012) claimed that since the 1990s, researchers of studies involving children and the young people have become quite creative in understanding the experiences of their subjects as authentically as they could. Dall and Te One (2012) evaluated the various methods that these researchers used when carrying out studies involving infants to 13-year-olds and interviewed some researchers about the issues they encountered, how they take children seriously as research participants, and the amount of time and resources they devote in these studies. Also, the interviews also took an interest on childhood researchers’ experience with the messiness of these studies, with the kind of respectful practices they employ with the children, and the strategies they use to disseminate findings to the target communities.

Results from the interviews revealed that childhood researchers have more insights into children’s views on a subject if talking with them freely as opposed to engaging and completing a planned research activity.  The researchers interviewed shared that some unexpected and important insights can be gathered if children are allowed to express their views freely. Children need space, and no matter how the childhood researchers create a comfortable setting for an interview, children can immediately clam up and not share all their views if they become self-conscious about someone or something during the interview. Creating space is important, which is not just a matter of having a physical place and the right time to do research with the children, but also the addressing of the children’s social and cultural expectations (Dalli & Te One 2012).

Power Imbalance

One problem that can arise when researching with children is an issue of power imbalance. Whether or not the researcher intended for such to happen, as an adult, children are naturally going to feel they are more powerful. Researchers can address these issues giving as much control as possible to the children subjects, giving them the chance to participate fully in the data collection such as taking their pictures and writing their journals (Fraser et al., 2014). Data generated by children would then be combined with other data sources gathered by the researchers to form robustness (Dalli & Te One 2012).

Interviewed researchers claimed that power issues are usually more inherent, but they are not disclosing this on the research. The children have some ability to contest the power issues, but these are limited (Dalli & Te One 2012). The researchers also discussed the messiness of conducting and completing research with children and revealed that transparency could be a complex issue in the research processes. From the researchers’ perspective, unless legal consent is obtained, it does not matter if children themselves said they want to the participant. Some researchers believed that this raised some ethical concerns. If parents consented for their children to participate and the children’s consent was deemed no longer necessary, this seems problematic (Dalli & Te One 2012).  Some believe that children should be given a chance to verify first that they understand what they are participating in. However, getting all these consents can be time-consuming.

More Resources Needed

Interviewed researchers also shared that conducting studies involving students can take more time and resources. Ideally, researchers should spend time with children before the start of the project, but this could be costly and not always possible, especially if the researcher is merely operating out of a grant given to conduct the study. However, if this is not done, then the findings could be affected (Dalli & Te One 2012). The researchers interviewed also claimed that being respectful of children’s participation rights especially when the final findings are being distributed can be complex to ensure but they strive to do so or else their findings can be affected (Dalli & Te One 2012). There are simply too many questions to consider and not overlook, such as if children being subjected to research practices are there because they are fully aware of their tasks and the purpose of the study or they felt intimidated not to participate. Even if participants can withdraw, do children understand this right?

The study found that childhood researchers are faced with certain complex problems that are not easy to solve because these are linked to issues of sensitivity, flexibility, and methodological creativity. Researchers must be additionally careful to ensure respect and balance of power in research relationships (Dalli & Te One 2012).

Conclusion

Ethical considerations exist in all kinds of research involving human participants, but more so when involving children and young people (Anderson 2014). These considerations should be done at every stage of the research process carried out continuously and in reflex. Both qualitative and quantitative research involving children and young people can give rise to ethical issues that childhood researchers should be aware of so they can address these effectively. There are no prescriptive rules on how, but the researchers cannot overlook these.

References List

Alderson, P. (2014). ‘Ethics.’in Clark, A., Flewitt, R., Hammersley, M. and Robb, M. eds., 2014. Understanding research with children and young people. Sage, pp. 85-102

Bucknall, S. (2014). ‘Doing qualitative research with children and young people,’ in Clark, A., Flewitt, R., Hammersley, M. and Robb, M. eds., 2014. Understanding research with children and young people. Sage,  pp. 69-84

Cooper, V. (2014). ‘Designing research for different purposes’ in Clark, A., Flewitt, R., Hammersley, M. and Robb, M. eds., 2014. Understanding research with children and young people. Sage, pp 51-68

Dalli, C. and Te One, S., 2012. Involving children in educational research: researcher reflections on challenges. International Journal of Early Years Education, 20(3), pp.224-233.

Fraser, S, Flewitt, R., & Hammerseley, M. (2014). ‘What is research with children and young people’ in Clark, A., Flewitt, R., Hammersley, M. and Robb, M. eds., 2014. Understanding research with children and young people. Sage, pp. 34-50

Kellet, M. (2014). ‘Images of childhood and their influence on research’ in Clark, A., Flewitt, R., Hammersley, M. and Robb, M. eds., 2014. Understanding research with children and young people. Sage, pp. 15-34