Research News
Young Lives: Research ethics in practice
The DFID-funded Young Lives Research Programme is an international study of childhood poverty tracking the changing lives of 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India (in the state of Andhra Pradesh), Peru and Vietnam over a 15-year period.
The Young Lives website now has a page which sets out the approach that the Programme is taking to research ethics. Young Lives takes a positive view of research ethics as enabling high-quality research while maintaining positive relationships between the research teams and the children and families who participate in the study.
The webpage outlines some of the practical measures being taken with regard to:
- Informed consent (including a Memorandum of Understanding for research teams)
- Anonymity and confidentiality (including guidelines on the use of photography)
- Rewards and compensation for participation
- Reporting back to communities
- Child protection
The page also has a short list of further reading on research ethics, including the recently published Young Lives Working Paper, The Ethics of Social Research with Children and Families in Young Lives: Practical Experiences, by Virginia Morrow, which explores the issues in more detail.
More information
See the project record for the latest phase of Young Lives, which gives links to the earlier phases.