NCJ Number
210316
Date Published
2005
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This chapter analyzes the ethical considerations involved in using young people as social research subjects, especially within a feminist research framework.
Abstract
The author offers her experiences conducting research with 77 young people regarding their views and opinions of domestic violence in order to analyze the role of children in social research. The methodology employed for the research reported in this chapter was a feminist standpoint methodology, which involves the researcher construing the participants as the experts in the topic under discussion. The traditional approach to young people as research subjects is reviewed followed by a discussion of the issue of consent, which has been a central feminist issue in relation to social research subjects. Providing full consent to take part in social research is often beyond the ability of children and is thus given by proxy by parents/guardians. The notion of “gatekeepers” as guardians of children’s interests is introduced and the author shows how she had to go through three layers of gatekeepers (the education department, the teachers, and the parents) before she could actually contact young people about participating in her research. Finally, issues of power and ethics in focus group research with young people are considered as the author illustrates the main challenges and successes with focus groups through her own research with children. Challenges include problems with complete confidentiality and shyness within groups while successes include the reduction of hierarchies that often plague other types of research designs. In closing, the author encourages other researchers to reflect on their own research experiences as an exercise in considering the wider theoretical and ethical debates concerning children’s rights and social research using child subjects. Notes, bibliography