BACKGROUND: For children 6-12 years old, there is a shortage of electronic Health (eHealth) services that promote their participation in health care. Therefore, a digital communication tool, called Sisom, was developed to give children a voice in their health care. Children with long-term diseases want to be more involved in their health care and have the right to receive information, be listened to, express their opinions, and participate in decision making in health care. However, the outcomes of using Sisom in practice at pediatric oncology clinics have not been investigated. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate children's participation during appointments with pediatricians at pediatric oncology clinics, with or without the use of the eHealth service Sisom. METHODS: A quasiexperimental design with mixed methods was used. We analyzed 27 filmed appointments with pediatricians for 14 children (8 girls and 6 boys) aged 6-12 years (mean 8.3 years) with a cancer diagnosis. The intervention group consisted of children who used Sisom prior to their appointments with pediatricians at a pediatric oncology clinic, and the control group consisted of children who had appointments with pediatricians at 4 pediatric oncology clinics. Data from observations from the videos were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. The quantitative analysis included manual calculations of how many times the pediatricians spoke directly to the children, the proportion of the appointment time that the children were talking, and levels of participation by the children. For the qualitative analysis, we used directed content analysis to analyze the children's levels of participation guided by a framework based on Shier's model of participation. RESULTS: Pediatricians directed a greater proportion of their discussion toward the child in the intervention group (731 occasions) than in the control group (624 occasions), but the proportion of the appointment time the children talked was almost the same for both the intervention and control groups (mean 17.0 minutes vs 17.6 minutes). The levels of participation corresponded to the first three levels of Shier's participation model: children were listened to, children were supported to express their views, and children's views were taken into account. The results showed an increased level of participation by the children in the intervention group. Several codes that were found did not fit into any of the existing categories, and a new category was thus formed: children received information. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the eHealth service Sisom can increase children's participation during appointments with health care professionals. Further studies employing a randomized control design focusing on the effects of eHealth services on children's health outcomes, perceived participation, and cost-effectiveness could make a significant contribution to guiding the implementation of eHealth services in pediatric care.
Britt‐Mari Gilljam, Jens Nygren, Petra Svedberg et al.
The voices of the children were historically silenced by the dominant societal conceptualization of childhood and children (James et al., 1998). With the emergence of the New Sociology of Childhood framework, children started to be conceptualized as active agents who can use their voices and contribute to the knowledge production (James & Prout, 1997; Corsaro, 2005). This perspective has been widely acknowledged and emphasized in Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations,1989). In line with this, the child participation perspective has brought increased attention to recognizing children as capable, autonomous, active agents in decision-making in all aspects of life (Palaiologou, 2014). This recognition also reflected on the process of conducting research with children. More precisely, the literature highlights a shift from involving children as passive agents of research to involving them as active agents whose participation is valued (e.g., Lane et al., 2019; Palaiologou, 2014). Specifically, within the context of child well-being, several scholars highlighted the importance of this transition by emphasizing the necessity of adopting a “research with children” perspective rather than “research on children”, positioning them as having active roles in measuring and monitoring their well-being (Ben-Arieh et al., 2001; Ben-Arieh, 2005; Fattore et al., 2009). OECD (2021) defined it as a multidimensional and forward-looking concept, focusing on four main outcomes of child well-being: material, physical health, cognitive/educational, and social, emotional, and cultural, serving as a valuable conceptualization for policies and research.By enabling child participation in research and policy, well-being actions correspond to the children’s real-life circumstances, instead of relying on the adult guesses (Moore & Lynch, 2018; Hernández-Torran et al., 2025). Importantly, to gain an understanding of each child’s well-being and enhance their well-being through research and policy, it is also important to reach children’s understanding of well-being from diverse backgrounds, as their well-being understanding alters with their context and characteristics, such as socioeconomic background (Fattore et al., 2009). Taken together, in child well-being research, making children active agents and reaching children from diverse backgrounds may warrant further attention.The existing literature includes a number of review studies focusing on the voices of the children in the research (Sun et al, 2023 & Lane et al., 2019). Several review studies have also examined the children's well-being in the literature (Domínguez-Serrano & del Moral-Espín, 2022). Despite the existence of literature for each topic individually, their intersectionality has received limited attention. Given the importance of children’s voices in the well-being research, a need for undertaking a review on child participation in child well-being research may arise.Drawing upon these, this study is grounded in providing a review of the current literature on taking the voices of children into consideration in their well-being through research. The review will be informed by the New Sociology of Childhood (James & Prout, 1997), which conceptualizes children as active and social agents. Grounded in this theoretical framework, the study aims to systematically review empirical research to analyze child participation in child well-being research by focusing on children’s forms of participation, data collection methods, and characteristics of the participant children.The research questions are:1. How do children participate in child well-being research, and whose voices are used to produce data regarding children in child well-being research?1.1. What are the forms in which children participate in child well-being research?1.2. What data collection methods are used to collect data directly from children in child well-being research?1.3. What are the characteristics of children participating in child well-being research in terms of age, geographical region, gender, disability status, and migration status?Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThis study is designed as a systematic literature review to analyze the participation of children in the research on child well-being. Data collection will be conducted in accordance with the standards by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (Page et al., 2021). Data will be obtained from three academic databases, including Web of Science, Scopus, and ERIC.The following keywords which are driven by the initial scanning will be used to identify related studies: “child”/“children”/“preschooler*”, “well-being”/ “mental health”/“physical health”/ “social well-being”/“emotional well-being”/ “cognitive well-being” “educational well-being”, “child participation”/“children participation”/“participatory”, “voice*”/“child perspective*”/“children’s perspective*” will be used in searching for studies. In the process, Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) will be used for effectiveness.Studies will be included based on the pre- determined eligibility criteria. Studies will be included in the analysis if they (1) are published between 2015 and 2026, (1) are published in English, (3) conduct empirical research, (3) primarily focus on child well-being, and (3) include children aged between 0 and 8 as participants. In the following step, studies will be scanned according to the eligibility, and studies will be excluded if they (1) are duplicated studies, (2) are not related to the scope of the research, or (3) do not include the children directly as participants.The selected studies will be analyzed by two researchers using descriptive content analysis informed by the New Sociology of Childhood framework. The initial codes were established based on the research question, theoretical framework, and initial literature review. In the second stage of analysis, the codes will be refined based on the data. The final step of the analysis will be synthesizing the emerging codes into higher-order categories to map the child’s participation in the well-being research. Each stage of the analysis will be conducted by two researchers independently. To ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of the analysis, an inter-coding agreement procedure will be implemented.The findings will be presented using descriptive categories and themes to highlight the forms of child participation in the well-being research and the characteristics of the participant children.Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe findings of the current study are expected to indicate that children’s participation in well-being research is framed in a researcher-centered way rather than centering the child’s participation. It is anticipated that children participate in studies most frequently as data providers in the data collection process. In contrast, their participation in other forms, such as participant researchers, is relatively rare.Additionally, findings are expected to reveal that interviews, observations, and surveys are the most frequently used data collection methods by the researchers. On the other hand, child-centered data collection methods such as participatory activities, art-based activities, and child-led discussions are less likely to be identified in the related research.Even though the data collection is still in progress, the primary review of the literature points out that children from Western countries are overrepresented in the well-being research compared to children from non- Western countries. The analysis is also likely to point out that younger children and children from marginalized backgrounds, such as children with special needs and immigrant children, are less frequently represented in well-being research.Overall, the findings of the study are expected to present how the children’s participation is framed in the well-being research. In addition, the study aims to reveal the patterns about the characteristics of the children whose voices are included in the well-being research and those who are not included. By presenting the patterns of participant children in the well-being research, the findings can raise the question of how child well-being is framed and which children are represented in the findings. Followingly, the study can contribute to the current discussions on child participation by systematically presenting how the children’s voices are included or not included in research on their well-being.ReferencesBen-Arieh, A., Kaufman, N.H., Andrews, A.B., Goerge, R.M., Lee, B.J., Aber, J.L. (2001). Measuring and Monitoring Children’s Well-Being and the Making of Policy. In: Measuring and Monitoring Children’s Well-Being. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2229-2_8Ben-Arieh, A. (2005). Where are the children? Children's role in measuring and monitoring their well-being. Social Indicators Research, 74(3), 573–596. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-004-4645-6Domínguez-Serrano, M., & del Moral-Espín, L. (2022). The capability approach and child well-being: A systematic literature review. Child Indicators Research, 15(6), 2043-2063.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-022-09953-1Fattore, T., Mason, J. and Watson, E. (2009) When Children Are Asked about Well-Being: Towards a Framework for Guiding Policy. Child IndicatorsResearch, 2, 57-77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12187-008-9025-3Hernández-Torrano, D., Ibrayeva, L., Sergazina, M., Burambayeva, A., Kulsary, A., Vella-Brodrick, D., & Eadie, P. (2025). What makes young children happy? Exploring well-being through children’s perspectives in early childhood education. Early Childhood Education Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-025-02081-9James, A., Jenks, C., & Prout, A. (1998). Theorizin
The topic of children's participation in various issues was updated in the second half of the last century. It was largely due to the adoption of an important international document such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children are as important participants in social life as adults so they have the right to express their opinions on various issues related to their activities, as well as to take into account these opinions by adults in decision-making in the family, in school, in the community, etc. Russian society is dominated by the traditional discourse of the perception of children as human becoming, socially and mentally immature, not-yet-an-adult. To study the parental discourse of children's participation in family issues, empirical material of the network discussion organized at the parental forum called Vladmama (Vladivostok, Russia) is used. In order to organize the discussion, an information injection was carried out. It was the description of the imagined problematic situation of child-parental relations on the issue of child’s participation in family affairs. The 81 messages received from 25 users were analyzed according to James Gee approach. Seven Gee’s “building tasks” (Activities; Identities; Relationships; Politics; Connections; Sign Systems and Knowledge) are researched on the materials of mother’s forum. The process of creating value is always connected with the exercise of power. In our case, mothers using their power as parents redefine the meanings of children's participation. The main resource that opens the way for adults to power is money. Earning money is interpreted by the participants of the forum as a way for a child to involve in the adult’s world, an opportunity to legalize the child’s right to express his/her own opinion and defend this opinion. Other sources of parent’s power are their own life experience, knowledge and social skills.
The purpose of this research is to understand and analyze child marriages in Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia from the perspective of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The research design used in this study is qualitative. The research nature is juridical-normative, referring to legal norms present in the legislations of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam. The research results indicate that using the CRC's concept of Child Participation in dispensations for underage marriage, it was previously shown that the concept of child protection encompasses a broad scope (O'Donnell), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasizes that all actions taken concerning the child must be contextually appropriate, for the best interests of the child (Eekelaar). Therefore, this study shows to what extent the protection of children's rights regarding their participation in dispensations for underage marriage in Southeast Asian Muslim countries, is allegedly contradictory to the CRC's definitive provision on the age of the child. This research implies that it can help analyze the extent to which child marriages violate the rights of the child as guaranteed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It aids in understanding how cultural and religious factors influence the practice of child marriages in Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia. Additionally, the results of this research could stimulate further studies in the same or related domains.
Ernawati Ernawati, Abdul Gani Abdullah, Zaitunah Subhan
This research aims to understand the relationships between the conceptualization of childhood, child participation, and the opportunities for participation that early childhood education (ECE) teachers offer to children at school. The perspectives of Spanish ECE teachers were gathered through semi-structured interviews. The results confirm that teachers are far from promoting authentic participation by children in school. Teachers who refer to children as competent and capable offer them more opportunities for participation. The analysis shows that the image of childhood held by teachers determines the types of activities they propose, the degree of freedom they offer, and the influence that participation has on children's lives. The adult-centered approach that dominates society and schools leads teachers to design and control most activities. Participatory activities are dependent on oral language skills, which can be a limiting factor for participation. However, there are signs of progress in the opportunities for participation offered to children.
Good professional practices in family reunification processes require a favourable attitude towards an approach to socio-educational action based on positive parenting, family resilience, and child participation. This quantitative study provides knowledge regarding these three perspectives based on the experience of 20 child protection system professionals (in Catalonia, Castilla-La Mancha, and Navarra) who have participated in training on and the implementation of the programme entitled ‘Caminar en familia’ (Walk as a family). Data were collected by administering a Likert-type questionnaire on two occasions, before starting the training on the programme and after implementing it with the group of families. A descriptive analysis of the data was performed using the SPSS v.25 software package. The results indicated a positive trend when incorporating positive parenting, family resilience, and child participation into professional practices in the child protection system, raising awareness of the children’s ability to identify their own needs and the parenting skills that their parents need to improve. In conclusion, the evidence invites us to shift the focus of professional support within the child protection system.
Ainoa Mateos Inchaurrondo, Julio Rodríguez Rodríguez, Núria Fuentes-Peláez et al.
It is considered necessary to support the participation of children socially, and media tools having a significant effect on individuals today should reflect child participation. The aim of this study was to examine the right to participate in cartoons prepared for primary school children. The study was conducted with a descriptive survey model. The sample of this study was determined by criterion sampling and consists of a total of 10 cartoons on the TRT Children’s channel for primary school children. The data were collected with a checklist and were analysed with descriptive analysis. As a result of the research, it was determined that in the cartoons, child-led participation was the most common level of participation, while collaborative participation was the least common. Furthermore, it was determined that the qualities of participation in cartoons were mostly related, voluntary and respectful and the safe and sensitive to risk were the least. Keywords: children’s participation, media, primary school children, right to participate
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to identify patterns of child and family characteristics and behaviors, and to determine the association of those patterns with child participation in sports. METHODS: A questionnaire and anthropometric measures were used to collect data on 834 parents and their 6- to 10-year-old children. A principal component analysis identified child and parental patterns, which were tested for association with child participation in extracurricular sports (ES). RESULTS: Seven patterns were identified: (1) socio-economic, (2) child obesity, (3) parental TV viewing, (4) father's physical activity (PA), (5) mother's PA, (6) child screen time, and (7) parental reported barriers. After adjustment, patterns 1 and 7 (P < .001), pattern 2 (P = .01), and patterns 5 and 6 (P = .04) were significantly associated with the number of sports practiced by children while, patterns 1 and 7 (P < .001), pattern 2 (P = .03), and patterns 4 and 5 (P = .01) were significantly associated with frequency of participation in ES. CONCLUSION: Future interventions to promote children's participation in sports should be based on a socio-ecological model and targeted to high-risk populations showing multiple risks such as a lower socio-economic status, inactive parents, or obese children.
Daniela Rodrigues, Cristina Maria Proença Padez, Aristides M. Machado‐Rodrigues
BACKGROUND: The oral health promotion sessions for young children and parents in a clinical setting pose challenges to the dental team. AIM: To apply PaeD-TrICS (Paediatric dental triadic interaction coding scheme) to investigate the interaction of child, parent and dental nurse and determine the effect of nurse and parental behaviours on child participation within an oral health promotion session. METHOD: A video observational study was applied. The sample consisted of a dental nurse and 22 children aged 2-5 years in a general dental practice in Scotland. Behaviours were catalogued with time stamps using PaeD-TrICS. Analysis of behavioural sequences with child participation as the dependent variable was conducted using multilevel modelling. RESULTS: Children varied significantly in their participation rate. The statistical model explained 28% of the variance. The older the child and longer consultations significantly increased child participation. Both nurse and parental behaviour had immediate influence on child participation. Parental facilitation had a strong moderating effect on the influence of the nurse on child participation. CONCLUSIONS: Child participation was dependent on nurse and parent encouragement signalling an important triadic communication process. The coding scheme and analysis illustrates an important tool to investigate these advisory sessions designed for delivering tailored messages to young children and parents. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: The dental staff, child patients and their parents were involved closely in the conduct and procedures of the present study.
Siyang Yuan, Gerry M. Humphris, Lorna M. D. Macpherson et al.
The paper is part of a collaborative research organized by the International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates (AIMJF/IAYFJM) on child participation as victims or witnesses in criminal cases. The article explains the legal, institutional and procedural aspects of child participation in the Justice System in Dominican Republic.
