Abstract
It is recognised that involving children and young
people directly in research is essential to gain
their perspective and opinions. Issues faced by
qualitative researchers interacting with children and
young people can involve, power in the researcherparticipant relationship, balancing the role of the
practitioner-researcher, obtaining free and informed
consent/assent and protection of confidentiality
(Mishna et al 200�). It is therefore important that
researchers provide sufficient information to ensure
that children and young people understand the
purpose of the research, what they are being asked
to do, what they can expect and that they are not
obligated to participate (Mahon et al 1996), issues
such as who will be present during the interview,
the role of the researcher and how to withdraw
from involvement must also be discussed. It is well
documented that it is important to discuss ethical
issues prior to commencing an interview and this
is especially vital in research involving children and
young people. Little practical guidance is offered
in the literature to help discussion of issues such
as confidentiality and researcher roles. It was felt
from personal experience conducting a current
research project that although it was easy to tell
children and young people about these issues – a
discussion did not naturally ensue and often it was
questioned what level of understanding they had
of these concepts. An exercise was designed called
‘ground rules’ which contains cards, pictures and
definitions of terms such as consent and confidentiality, which could be altered to be developmentally appropriate for different age groups. This will
have been trialled with over 10 children and young
people in the course of a research study. The presentation will include discussion of the pertinent
ethical issues relevant to children and young
people and reflection and feedback from use of
this exercise in practice.
Original language | English |
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Publication status | Published - 2006 |
Event | Royal College of Nursing (RCN) International Nursing Research Conference - York Racecourse, York, United Kingdom Duration: 21 Mar 2006 → 24 Mar 2006 |
Conference
Conference | Royal College of Nursing (RCN) International Nursing Research Conference |
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Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
City | York |
Period | 21/03/06 → 24/03/06 |