Kids tell us that making decisions can sometimes be hard (anyone who has taken a child to an ice cream shop can attest to this). Adults don’t often give children choices and kids tell us that when they do it can be confusing: ‘what am I being asked?’, ‘can I really say no?’, ‘do they seriously care?’ and ‘what will happen if I make a decision the adult doesn’t like?’ are questions that might spring to mind. After all, they tell us that it’s not usual for adults to seek out children’s views, to let them make big decisions or to give up some of their ‘adult power’ and act on children’s wishes.

And yet children are required to ‘assent’ to research, often with little information about what research actually is and what they will be required to do. In most cases, they know that their parents have already given permission for them to be involved – which may be reassuring but also a bit daunting (how often is it that kids can say ‘no’ when their parents have already said ‘yes’?) – but in most cases a complete stranger comes into their home or schoolroom and pulls out a note pad and asks them whether their happy to answer a few questions. “Um OK?”

Since the Helsinki Declaration there has been an expectation that children provide assent to their participation in research. Often this entails providing them with a long-winded, legalistic and ‘pretty boring’ information letter, telling them that if they agree they might get a movie voucher or at least a packet of chips and a can of soft drink before asking them to tick a box to show that they agree. As a child in one of my studies reported, the process is ‘kinda like’ the terms and conditions process they go through when downloading a new app from i-Tunes. Like 73% of Terms and Conditions non-readers, kids in research often have no idea what they are signing up for and what their rights are when things go wrong.

In a recent study my colleagues and I conducted for the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse we got advice from children and young people about how to best help kids understand and consent to participating in research on a fairly sensitive topic. Based on this advice we conceptualized consent as an ongoing process that included six steps: (1) present information in a child-friendly and accessible way; (2) make sure they understand what research is and what they are expected to do; (3) give them the choice to participate (or not) and ask them to formally agree; (4) give them lots of opportunities (and the skills or tools) to bow out of the research (particularly after they’ve got a ‘feel’ for what they are being asked to do) or to change the way that they are participating; (5) be aware of the ways that kids resist or ‘dissent’ (yawning or sneaking out of the room might give it away) and constantly ‘check in’ with them in child-friendly ways (6) Get an agreement with them at the end of the research activity that they are still happy for their input to be included in the study and negotiate what, if anything, they’re happy for the researcher to share with their parent, teacher or older sibling who is standing behind the door.

In the paper “More a marathon than a hurdle: towards children’s consent in a safety study” my colleagues and I outline how we went through these steps with kids, we describe how we used felt toys, ‘stop signs’ and ‘rights posters’ to help children and young people consent and, most importantly, quote advice and feedback from children and young people on how adult researchers might best help kids to make decisions within the research context.

One tool we feature in the article is our “Charter of Rights” poster which we provide kids in our studies. The poster informs them of what they should expect from us, as researchers, and what to do if they are unhappy. The poster is given to the children prior to them meeting with our staff and is further explained before assent is sought. On the advice of children and young people who have advised our projects, the rights charter has also been used as the basis of a series of games and activities that can be used to help children understand their rights in research (and in welfare practice). More detail about these can be found here. My team at the Institute of Child Protection Studies are working with peers from the Centre from Children and Young People (Southern Cross University), UNSW and the University of Melbourne to progress ethical research with children and young people. We’re currently hosting a survey on ethical decision-making – take a minute to fill it in! We’re keen to chat with others who are grappling with how to meaningfully engage kids in research (and support them to make good decisions) and would love to hear from you. *Terms and Conditions Apply.

Contributor
Dr Tim Moore
Senior Research Fellow | Institute of Child Protection Studies, ACU
Bio page at ACU, Tim.Moore@acu.edu.au

This post may be cited as:
Moore T. (2017, 21 July) Terms and conditions apply; Research Ethics Monthly. Retrieved from: https://ahrecs.com/human-research-ethics/terms-conditions-apply