Section II: Ethics from End to End

1. Core Principles
2. Planning Your Study
3. Section II Quiz 1 (on Qualtrics) password required
4. Implementing Your Study
5. Processing Your Data
6. Section II Quiz 2 (on Qualtrics) password required

Core Principles

As stated in the British Psychological Association (BPS) Code of Human Research Ethics¹:

Good research “is only possible if there is mutual respect and trust between investigators and participants.” (p.4 )

Because child research almost always involves research with human participants, we adopt four principles outlined by BPS; namely:

1. Respect for the autonomy, privacy, and dignity of individuals and communities

Researchers “have a responsibility to develop and follow procedures for valid consent, confidentiality, anonymity, fair treatment and due process that are consistent with those rights.” (p. 8)

These can be achieved by:

• Respecting people regardless of age, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, health status, socioeconomic status, and other personal characteristics.
• Ensuring that participants have enough information about the study, that they participating voluntarily, and that they know they have the option to say no or withdraw.
• Ensuring that participants’ personal identity is kept private and that datasets are anonymised.

2. Scientific integrity

“Research should be designed, reviewed and conducted in a way that ensures its quality, integrity and contribution to the development of knowledge and understanding.” (p. 9)

Researchers should then ensure that:

• The research study is well-designed and conducted.
• The aims of the research are easily understood.
• They carefully consider the risks involved and make clear plans to reduce or avoid harm to participants.

3. Social responsibility

“…a shared collective duty for the welfare of human and non-human beings, both within the societies in which… researchers live and work, and beyond them, must be acknowledged by those conducting the research” (p. 10)

Researchers must:

• Ensure that the benefits of the research outweigh the disruptions caused to individuals or groups.
• Collaborate with colleagues, participants, and others.
• Be aware of their own professional and personal limitations.

4. Maximising benefit and minimising harm

Researchers “should consider all research from the standpoint of the research participants, and any other persons, groups or communities who may be potentially affected by the research, with the aim of avoiding potential risks to psychological well-being, mental health, personal values, the invasion of privacy or dignity.” (p. 11)

Researchers are responsible for:

• Creating and implementing risk management protocols to avoid or reduce harm resulting from research participation, if any.
• Ensuring that participants are not put at greater risk than they normally experience in daily life.
• Ensuring that vulnerable communities or individuals (e.g., children; participants in developing countries) are not coerced or exploited for research, especially research that mainly benefits a different group (e.g., in high-income countries)

These principles are essential to any research involving humans, especially those who are especially vulnerable, such as children. Knowing these principles is one thing but putting them into practice is another.

In the following sections, we’ll walk you through different stages of research; namely, planning your study, implementing your study, and processing your data. This will serve as a practical guide that you can follow for any study involving humans, especially with children in low- and middle-income countries.

NEXT: Good planning is key: Ethics before data collection

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