Ethical Research Involving Children

More a marathon than a hurdle: Towards children’s informed consent in a study on safety.

Moore, T. P., McArthur, M., & Noble-Carr, D. (2017). More a marathon than a hurdle: Towards children’s informed consent in a study on safety. Qualitative Research, 18(1), pp. 88-107.

Abstract: Informed consent is critical in research with children. Although much has been written about the need to see consent as an ongoing process, less has considered how to do it in practice. This article reflects on the authors’ experiences of conducting a piece of research focusing on children’s experiences of safety from abuse within institutional contexts. It draws on feedback provided by participants and the guidance of three Children’s Reference Groups. The importance of presenting information in accessible and appropriate ways, of providing opportunities for participants to negotiate their participation and for in-the-moment challenges be dealt with collaboratively and reflexively are stressed. To illustrate our approach, we provide a number of consent tools and describe how they were utilised. (The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Qualitative Research, 2017 by SAGE Publications, Ltd., All rights reserved. © SAGE Publications, Ltd.)