Ethical Issues in Community-based Research with Children and Youth

Efforts to apply ethical guidelines and regulations to vulnerable populations are often problematic. Consequently, health and social scientists sometimes shy away from the challenges of research, particularly when it means addressing value-laden social problems such as sexuality, drugs, and racism. Ethical Issues in Community-Based Research with Children and Youth is a collection of essays that describe the uniqueness of community-based research, outlining several of the ethical concerns that it engenders. The contributors examine such issues as the scope of informed consent to multiple stakeholders, determining competence to give consent in marginalized populations, and managing dual roles as participant researchers.

The collection suggests that a more collaborative, ongoing, and discursive approach is needed by researchers and by ethical review boards to ensure that research on sensitive social problems with high risk populations is supported and also conducted with a clear understanding of the highest ethical standards possible.