Consent for Research on Violence against Children: Dilemmas and Contradictions

Abstract

The increasing visibility of violence involving children has led to a recognition of the need to research its underlying dynamics. As a result, we now have a better understanding of the complexities involved in this kind of research, associated with children’s developmental characteristics and social status, exposure to violence, and compromised parenting of caregivers. This paper discusses the issues raised by parental consent in research on violence against children, specifically the dilemma of children’s rights to participation and protection, and proposes changes in research practice in this domain.

A multi-modal MRI analysis of brain structure and function in relation to OXT methylation in maltreated children and adolescents

“…However, we could not detect group differences in these brain volumes and activities themselves. Reproducibility in larger datasets is necessary to confirm the results, but obtaining research consent from CM is exceptionally complicated [7][8][9]. Second, the CM group in the present study was a heterogeneous population in terms of the type of maltreatment they had been experienced, as shown in Fig.…”

“…Therefore, it is crucial to identify a target neurobiological mechanism which can be used to intervene in children who were maltreated (CM) prior to this completion of brain reorganization to improve their subsequent quality of life and break the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment. However, neurobiological research conducted on child maltreatment has been limited, regardless of the field, because obtaining parental informed consent for underage children remains challenging [7][8][9]. Nonetheless, we assessed the neurobiological impact of child maltreatment using cognitive and clinical assessments [10][11][12] and brain imaging [13][14][15][16] under the care of appropriate institutions.…”

Children and adolescents’ voices and the implications for ethical research

“…Another common example is research on topics such as domestic violence and child abuse where legal guardians may or may not give consent because of being aggressors themselves or witnessing the situation; a problem mentioned by a research participant (P2) and well documented in the literature (Martins and Sani, 2020). Finally, cases in which the participation of children is denied or limited not because of their vulnerability to research, but because of the complexity of the research topic, the chances of emancipating children and adolescents from unsafe and unfair situations are lost.…”

Cartoons: A Profound Outlook within the Scope of Children and Media

“…In the rapidly changing world, social problems unfortunately increase at the same speed as well; people turn into less sensible, more lonesome, more consuming and less emphaticizing individuals. Crimes, burst of rage, aggression and violence increase in every part of the community like home, school, workplace, or the recreational and entertainment areas (Chen & Chen, 2019;Igboegwu, 2020;Kumari et al, 2020;Madhivanan et al, 2020;Martins & Sani, 2020;Mehdinezhad & Rashki, 2018;Rodrigues et al, 2017). The way to prevent this would be only possible through education.…”