Encouraging greater empowerment for adolescents in consent procedures in social science research and policy projects.

Journal: Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity

Volume: 24 Suppl 2

Issue: 

Year of Publication: 2023

Affiliated Institutions:  Department of Health Promotion and Development, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway. Department of Food Safety, Division of Climate and Environmental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway. Center for Psychosocial & Crisis Action-Malinska, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. EAT, Oslo, Norway. Department of Sociology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Unit for Mental Health, Children and Youth, Public Health Agency of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden. Department of Sociology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. School of Medicine, St. Andrews University, St. Andrews, UK. Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institute, Solna, Sweden. Department of Evidence and Quality Standards, Austrian National Public Health Institute, Vienna, Austria. Psychology and health Sciences Department, Lusofona University, Lisbon, Portugal. Department of Education and Special Education, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. Research Centre for Health Through Physical Activity, Lifestyle and Sport (HPALS), Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa. Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway. Health Promotion Research Centre, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland. Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK. Department of Child and Adolescent Health, Institute of Mother and Child, Warsaw, Poland. Department of Nutrition, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. Institute of Psychology, SWPS University, Wroclaw, Poland. Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Sevilla, Seville, Spain. Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Riga, Latvia. Centre of Health Promotion, Institute of Public Health of Serbia, Beograd, Serbia. Centre for Studies and Research in Social Dynamics and Health, Lisbon, Portugal. Press - Redd Barna Ungdom, Oslo, Norway. Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, UK. Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.

Abstract summary 

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasizes the importance of allowing children and adolescents to influence decisions that are important to them following their age and maturity. This paper explores the principles, practices, and implications around using parental versus child/adolescent consent when participating in social science research and policy development. Experiences from two studies are presented: The Confronting Obesity: Co-creating policy with youth (CO-CREATE) and the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborative Cross-National study. Although parental consent may be an important gatekeeper for protecting children and adolescents from potentially harmful research participation, it may also be considered an obstacle to the empowerment of children and adolescents in case they want to share their views and experiences directly. This paper argues that evaluation of possible harm should be left to ethics committees and that, if no harm related to the research participation processes is identified and the project has a clear perspective on collaborating with the target group, adolescents from the age of 12 years should be granted the legal capacity to give consent to participate in the research project. Collaboration with adolescents in the development of the research project is encouraged.

Authors & Co-authors:  Samdal Oddrun O Budin-Ljøsne Isabelle I Haug Ellen E Helland Trond T Kjostarova-Unkovska Lina L Bouillon Claire C Bröer Christian C Corell Maria M Cosma Alina A Currie Dorothy D Eriksson Charli C Felder-Puig Rosemarie R Gaspar Tania T Hagquist Curt C Harbron Janetta J Jåstad Atle A Kelly Colette C Knai Cecile C Kleszczewska Dorota D Kysnes Bjarte Birkeland BB Lien Nanna N Luszczynska Aleksandra A Moerman Gerben G Moreno-Maldonado Concepcion C NicGabhainn Saoirse S Pudule Iveta I Rakic Jelena Gudelj JG Rito Ana A Rønnestad Alfred Mestad AM Ulstein Madeleine M Rutter Harry H Klepp Knut-Inge KI

Study Outcome 

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Statistics
Citations :  Dahl R, Allen NB, Wilbrecht L, Suleiman AB. Importance of investing in adolescence from a developmental science perspective. Nature. 2018;554(7693):441-450. doi:10.1038/nature25770
Authors :  32
Identifiers
Doi : 10.1111/obr.13636
SSN : 1467-789X
Study Population
Male,Female
Mesh Terms
Child
Other Terms
CO-CREATE study;HBSC study;adolescent consent;parental consent
Study Design
Case Study,Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Country of Study
Publication Country
England