3.8: Ethics and Informed Consent

Research should, as much as possible, be based on participants' freely volunteered informed consent. For minors, this also requires consent from their legal guardians. This implies a responsibility to explain fully and meaningfully to both the child and their guardians what the research is about, potential costs and benefits, and how it will be disseminated. Participants and their legal guardians should be aware of the research purpose and procedures, their right to refuse to participate; the extent to which confidentiality will be maintained; the potential uses to which the data might be put; the foreseeable risks and expected benefits; and that participants have the right to discontinue at any time.

But consent alone does not absolve the responsibility of researchers to anticipate and guard against potential harmful consequences for participants.[1] It is critical that researchers protect all rights of the participants including confidentiality.

There are several particular and different issues we face when doing research in child development – from obtaining informed consent to doing naïve observations in naturalistic settings, from getting permission from young children (and their parents) to protecting confidentiality of older adolescents, and from obtaining information from and about children who cannot talk and some who are presumably not yet self aware enough to tell us about their thoughts and feelings. All psychologists grapple with many of these issues, and some are exacerbated because our participants are special and unique in many ways. But these are the reasons why all government funded research institutions are required to have an Institutional Review Board that meets at least monthly and all research carried out at that institution must receive IRB approval before data collection starts. The idea behind this is to protect the rights of all involved as well as to preempt any potential problems from occurring. Well-meaning researchers may not account for potential conflicts that might arise between the different responsibilities in their roles as researchers, psychologists, and civic-minded adults.

One extreme but important example of this kind of issue is playing out in many schools across the country today. When teenagers and even younger children “come out” about their gender identity to teachers or school social workers but do not feel safe doing so at home to their parents, there are multiple considerations that need to be negotiated ethically as well as legally. This storm that has erupted is not directly about research in child development but you can see how a researcher might encounter similar or parallel issues in their work.

Attributions:

Child Growth and Development by Jennifer Paris, Antoinette Ricardo, and Dawn Rymond, 2019, is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Confidentiality and Informed Consent: Issues for Consideration in the Preservation of and Provision of Access to Qualitative Data Archives by Louise Corti, Annette Day & Gill BackhouseSource is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (modified by Jennifer Paris); "No thank you, not today": Supporting Ethical and Professional Relationships in Large Qualitative Studies by Lisa J. Blodgett, Wanda Boyer & Emily TurkSource is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (modified by Jennifer Paris)