Developing a method to aid informed consent when interviewing children and young people.

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

    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 languageEnglish
    Publication statusPublished - 2006
    EventRoyal College of Nursing (RCN) International Nursing Research Conference - York Racecourse, York, United Kingdom
    Duration: 21 Mar 200624 Mar 2006

    Conference

    ConferenceRoyal College of Nursing (RCN) International Nursing Research Conference
    Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
    CityYork
    Period21/03/0624/03/06

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