Peer-reviewed article
Participatory Research With Children: From Child-Rights Based Principles to Practical Guidelines for Meaningful and Ethical Participation
Amanda Angelöw, Elia Psouni ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This paper argues that children and young people have a right to participate in research that affects them, as recognized by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The authors propose practical guidelines for including children as co-researchers in studies, based on child-rights principles. Evidence suggests that when young people participate as co-researchers, they gain positive social, emotional and cognitive benefits. The paper emphasizes that participatory research can also improve the quality and relevance of findings by including children's own perspectives and experiences.
Key points
- Children and youth have a right to be heard in decisions and research concerning them under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
- Studies show positive socioemotional and cognitive outcomes for youth who participate as co-researchers
- Practical guidelines are needed to establish reproducible and ethical participatory research practices with children
- Participatory research is expected to improve research relevance and quality by including children's perspectives
- Guidelines should ensure child participation is safe, empowering, and meaningful
Limitations
This paper is conceptual and presents guidelines rather than evaluating a specific intervention's effectiveness. It does not provide empirical data on outcomes achieved in practice or compare different implementation approaches.
Abstract
While the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) does not address research, it instigated a recognition that decisions concerning children and youth must be based on knowledge of their experiences from their own perspective and consider their specific views and wishes, highlighting their right to be heard. Participatory research underscores this right, arguing the engagement of children and youth throughout the research process. Studies indicate positive socioemotional and cognitive outcomes for youth co-researchers. It is reasonable to also expect gains in terms of research relevance and quality. However, guidelines are urgently needed, to help establish reproducible research practices and align with child-rights based processes. Based on UNCRC principles for ethical and meaningful child participation, we thus conceptualize practical guidelines for participatory research with children and youth, which we illustrate with concrete practices how children/youth can be included as co-researchers in processes that are safe, empowering, and relevant.