The Ethics of Research with Children and Young People

Priscilla Alderson is Emerita Professor of Childhood Studies at University College London Social Research Institute. She has been involved with medical research ethics committees for nearly 40 years, and more recently with committees that review social research. She has advised on the writing of research ethics guidelines for a range of medical, nursing, social and psychological authorities. She has researched many aspects of children’s lives and rights, from premature babies to young people aged up to 18 (see ResearchGate). Recent books include Childhoods, Real or Imagined: An Introduction to Critical Realism and Childhood Studies (Routledge 2013) and The Politics of Childhoods, Real or Imagined (Routledge 2016).  Virginia Morrow is Visiting Professor, UCL Social Research Institute, and Research Associate, Young Lives, Department of International Development, University of Oxford. Her main research interests are sociology and history of childhood, child labour and children’s work, children’s rights, methods and ethics of social research with children; children’s understandings of family and other social environments. She has been a member of numerous advisory groups and research ethics committees.  She is the author of numerous papers and reports and she was a co-editor of Childhood: A Journal of Global Child Research, 2006-2016, also published by Sage.

This clear and engaging book challenges and guides researchers and ethics panels alike to consider the child as central in all stages of a research cycle. Bravo!

• Introduction: Why ethics mattersPart I: The planning stagesChapter 1: Planning the research: Purpose and methodsChapter 2: Assessing harms and benefitsChapter 3: Respect for rights: Privacy and confidentialityChapter 4: Designing research: Selection and participationChapter 5: Money matters: Contracts, funding research, and paying participantsChapter 6: Reviewing aims and methods: Ethics guidance and committeesPart II: The data collecting stageChapter 7: InformationChapter 8: ConsentPart III: The writing, reporting and follow up stagesChapter 9: Disseminating and implementing the findingsChapter 10: The impact on children and young people