Ethical challenges in research on the well-being of children and young people
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A presentation by Virginia Morrow on the ethical challenges in the context of multi-national research on the well-being of children and young people, given to the International and Interdisciplinary Conference, Exploring the Global Well-Being of Children and Youth on 9 July 2015 at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany
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Ethical challenges in research on the well-being of children and young people
- 1. Ethical challenges in the context of multi-national research on the well-being of children and young people Exploring the Global Well-being of Children and Youth Berlin, July 2015 Virginia Morrow, Senior Research Officer
- 2. • Young Lives – introduction • Qualitative research within Young Lives • Ethics questions for Young Lives • Ethics questions in researching children’s well-being STRUCTURE OF TALK
- 3. YOUNG LIVES • Multi-disciplinary study that aims to: - improve understanding of childhood poverty - provide evidence to improve policies & practice • Following nearly 12,000 children in 4 countries: Ethiopia; India (Andhra Pradesh & Telangana), Peru and Vietnam, over 15 years • Now covers 11-year period: first data collected in 2002, with 4 survey rounds and 4 waves of qualitative research with nested sample of 50 children, and survey of Young Lives children’s schools • Two age cohorts in each country: - 2,000 children born in 2000-01 (Younger Cohort) - 1,000 children born in 1994-95 (Older Cohort) • Pro-poor sample: 20 sites in each country, reflecting country diversity (rural-urban, diverse livelihoods, ethnicity) • Collaboration - Partners in each country - UNICEF Office of Research – GLORI (linking cohort studies) - UK Data Archive (survey data as a public good)
- 4. AGES: 1 5 8 12 15 YOUNGERCOHORT Following 2,000 children OLDERCOHORT Following 1,000 children AGES: 8 12 15 19 22 Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 2002 2006 2009 2013 2016 YOUNG LIVES DESIGN Same age children at different time points Qualitative nested sample 1 2 3 4 Linked school surveys
- 5. Focus on • daily lives and well-being of 200+ children in a selection of YL communities – rapid social change and modernity/globalization • changes during childhood and children’s trajectories - a life- course approach • policies and services are experienced by children (and caregivers) - inequalities - and who is ‘left behind’ QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
- 6. • child-focused, ‘nested’ case studies • Individual and group activities • creative methods + talk • multi-actor (‘Mosaic approach’) • flexible and reflexive • mixed- and multi-method OUR APPROACH
- 7. child interview caregiver interview wellbeing exercise school transitions who is important? community mapping child-led tour photo elicitation daily activities/time-use observations (home, school, etc) teacher interview group teacher interview group community interview group caregiver interview life course timeline body mapping daily diaries happy day/sad dayR1 household survey R2 household survey R1 8 year old child survey R2 12 year old child survey QUALITATIVE RESEARCH – FIRST ROUND EXAMPLE
- 8. • Case-level data to explore themes (well-being, transitions, services) through individual experience • To identify patterns, link to survey data (child, household, community questionnaires) But: •Balance between interaction during fieldwork/avoid respondent fatigue •Research with young children (aged 5/6) •Changing interests, preferred ways of communicating •Abstract concepts like ‘wellbeing’ and ‘transitions’ ? OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
- 9. • What are researchers trying to find out? • Values about children/childhood • Group and individual well-being • Sources of pride/shame • Translation – ‘having a good life’ ‘happy and comfortable lives’ ‘Good/bad life’? ‘moving well with others’? • Useful heuristic device • Change over time in views and circumstances WELL-BEING
- 10. • Developing the ethics guidelines for Qual 1, refinement following fieldwork • Revisiting ethics questions is ongoing • Across qualitative, survey and policy teams • Across countries and disciplines • Dilemmas documented - shared enquiry RESEARCH ETHICS - YOUNG LIVES
- 11. • Raised expectations - people ask for, and expect, help – at all rounds • “why do you keep doing surveys and over and over... but you have not proposed any measures to change the situation in our communities?” • Taking time to explain • Wish to maintain contact • Questions (survey/qual) can be upsetting • Final round of Qual: saying goodbye INFORMATION - FOR CHILDREN AND PARENTS
- 12. • Context: eg: recent newspaper report about a child being kidnapped and killed to have her organs sold (Vietnam) • At the beginning of the fieldwork, some parents were sceptical towards the research and were reluctant to allow their children to be alone with researchers, for example, on a child-led tour. These attitudes passed after a few days, as they better understood the research • Time needed to develop trust INFORMATION - FOR RESEARCHERS
- 13. • Consent (mother-in-law, both parents of YL child’s child etc) • High levels of violence reported via well- being questions • Sensitive questions – fertility, reproductive and sexual health ONGOING ETHICS CONSIDERATIONS
- 14. • Purpose of the research • Assessing harms & benefits • Respecting privacy and confidentiality • Selection and participation • Money matters – funding, compensation • Reviewing aims and methods • Information • Consent • Dissemination • Impact on children TEN QUESTIONS IN RESEARCH ETHICS
- 15. • Power/status disparities between adults and children • Perceived drawbacks apply to all research • At the point of interpretation power differences remain Suggestions • 'Respect’ needs to become a technique in itself • Keep in mind differences between research participants • Don’t rely on one method of data collection • If possible, report back and get people’s responses • Be aware of dangers of misrepresentation in dissemination - eg UNICEF report cards POWER RELATIONSHIPS
- 17. • Young Lives children, parents/caregivers as well as community leaders, teachers, health workers and others in communities. • Fieldworkers, data-managers, survey enumerators and supervisors, principal investigators and country directors in each country • Oxford team • Funders: DFID, DGIS, IrishAid, Oak Foundation, Bernard Van Leer Foundation. THANKS TO…
- 18. www.younglives.org.uk • Methods, ethics and research papers • datasets (UK Data Archive) • publications • child profiles and photos • e-newsletter FINDING OUT MORE
- 19. Alderson, P. & Morrow, V. (2011) The ethics of research with children and young people: a practical handbook. London: Sage. Camfield, L. and Tafere, Y. (2009) 'No, living well does not mean being rich': Diverse understandings of well-being among 11-13-year-old children in three Ethiopian communities Journal of Children and Poverty 15, 119-136 Crivello, G. (in preparation) ‘We’re like family now’: Negotiating research relationships, reciprocity and closure at the end of a longitudinal qualitative study. Crivello, G. & Rojas, V. (2014) ‘Children’s Understandings of Well-being/Ill-being’, in V Johnson, R Hart and J Colwell (eds) Steps to Engaging Young Children in Research: The Guide and Toolkit, The Bernard van Leer Foundation, The Hague/University of Brighton. Crivello, G., Morrow, V., Wilson, E. (2013) Young Lives Longitudinal Qualitative Research: a guide for researchers. Young Lives Technical Note 26, Young Lives, Oxford. Morrow, V. (2013) Practical Ethics in Social Research with Children and Families in Young Lives, Methodological Innovations Online 8, 2, 21-35. Morrow, V., and Crivello, G. (2015) What is the value of qualitative longitudinal research with children and families for international development? International Journal of Social Research Methodology: Theory and Practice 18, 3: 267-280. Rojas, V., and Cussianovich, A. (2013) Le va bien en la vida (Perceptions of well-being of teenagers in Peru) Niños del Milenio Working Paper, Peru. Schenk, K., and Williamson, J. (2005) Ethical approaches to gathering information from children and adolescents in international settings: guidelines and resources. Washington, DC. Population Council. Tafere, Y., and Woldehanna, T. (2012) Beyond food security: transforming the productive safety net programme in Ethiopia for the well-being of children. Young Lives Working Paper 83. REFERENCES
Editor's Notes
- The talk will briefly introduce Young Lives. Then it will outline ethics questions in relation to research with children, before describing methods used in qualitative research with children, drawing on experiences of gathering four rounds of qualitative data in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam.
- The question format helps to adapt and connect general ethics guidance and governance to specific research issues Towards an approach of shared inquiry Rather than rigid prescription
- Not strictly nationally representative because we don’t cover better off households Say something about what cohort studies can do and why they are so valuable
- 1 States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. 2 In Peru, the Older Cohort consists of approximately 750 children. Qualitative research – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013
- Multi-method, evidence-based policy
- Producing a HUGE dataset based. Although NOT focussed on EDUCATION, education has become central to many aspects of our research and policy work. Education has become a defining feature of modern childhood, in all of our contexts. How poverty impacts on educational outcomes. ALSO how educational experiences impact on poverty outcomes.
- Similarly, in Vietnam, fieldwork coincided with a : At the beginning of the fieldwork, some parents of Younger Cohort children were therefore sceptical towards the researchers and were reluctant to allow their children to be alone with researchers, for example on a child-led tour. These attitudes passed after a few days, as they better understood the research (Vu 2012: p18). fieldworkers have enough time to communicate respectfully in order to develop trusting relationships with families and children, as well having an understanding of context, including current events and news media stories. ask ‘why do you keep doing surveys and over and over... but you have not proposed any measure to change the situation in our communities? question of informed consent becomes more complex, and local norms need to be respected while retaining primacy of informed consent from young people. In India, for example, married girls will be living with their in-laws, and the expectation is that the mother-in-law will need to give permission for the daughter-in-law’s involvement in research. There are concerns about asking young women sensitive questions about how they are treated in their new homes, in contexts where there are no support systems in place. If a baby has been born to a Young Lives participant, fieldworkers need to obtain verbal consent from the spouse to include some basic physical measurements. Finally, Young Lives qualitative research teams have established trusting, long-term relationships with children and families. While participants will continue to be involved in the survey, qualitative research teams need to find ways to say goodbye and close the relationship. Again, the literature on this for developing countries is scanty, but see Kjorholt (2012), who describes students’ experiences of ending fieldwork. In Canada, Morrison et al. (2012) describe the need for guidelines to be established on how to end researchers’ involvement with their participants without them feeling ‘used’. Neale (2013, this issue) highlights similar considerations in qualitative longitudinal research in the UK). An advantage of long-term research is that it provides time to learn from experience and adapt methods and ethics approaches. Young Lives research tools/activities may be experienced as time-consuming and difficult. For example, some of the questions in the household survey and child survey are complex, and people may have difficulty answering them. Subsequent rounds of the questionnaire have been adapted to minimise these difficulties, but there is a tension because of the need for continuity of data in a panel study. In developing Round 3 survey questionnaires, some sensitive and intrusive questions were discussed and dropped, or refocused, in case they cause distress or difficulties. For example, in Ethiopia, because of the political situation, it would be too sensitive to ask about participation in political protests. Finally, Young Lives needs to develop clear communication about what fieldworkers can and cannot do in terms of helping families and children.
- The question format helps to adapt and connect general ethics guidance and governance to specific research issues Towards an approach of shared inquiry Rather than rigid prescription
- Ginny