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.

Introduction: Why ethics matters
Part I: The planning stages
Chapter 1: Planning the research: Purpose and methods
Chapter 2: Assessing harms and benefits
Chapter 3: Respect for rights: Privacy and confidentiality
Chapter 4: Designing research: Selection and participation
Chapter 5: Money matters: Contracts, funding research, and paying participants
Chapter 6: Reviewing aims and methods: Ethics guidance and committees
Part II: The data collecting stage
Chapter 7: Information
Chapter 8: Consent
Part III: The writing, reporting and follow up stages
Chapter 9: Disseminating and implementing the findings
Chapter 10: The impact on children and young people