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

• Young Lives – introduction

• Qualitative research within Young Lives

• Ethics questions for Young Lives

• Ethics questions in researching children’s well-being

STRUCTURE OF TALK

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)

AGES: 1 5 8 12 15

YOU

NG

ER C

OH

ORT

Following 2,000 children

OLD

ER C

OH

ORT

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

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

• 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

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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…

www.younglives.org.uk• Methods, ethics and research papers• datasets (UK Data Archive)• publications• child profiles and photos• e-newsletter

FINDING OUT MORE

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