Overcoming “You Can Ask My Mom”: Clinical Arts-Based Perspectives to Include Children Under 12 in Mental Health Research

Abstract

As research with children (rather than research on children) gains popularity and researchers adapt methods to include children’s voices, continual reflection on the research methods themselves is needed. In this article, we explore the relevance of playing and drawing in qualitative research interviews to include and represent the voice of children under 12 years of age, particularly in the field of mental health research. We reflect on the conception of children’s voice in research and argue for an understanding of voice that goes beyond verbal language. We suggest a combination of perspectives from arts-based research and clinical interview practice to support our understanding of children’s voice in research. As an illustration, we draw on an example taken from a large research project in Youth Mental Health Collaborative Care during which 23 children under the age of 12 were interviewed using a talk-play-draw model. We discuss the multidimensional aspect of children’s voices and the ethical value of arts and play in research interviews. We highlight the importance of researchers’ ethical reflexivity and creative participation in their quest to understand children’s voices. While doing so, we emphasize the responsibility of researchers to interpret, translate and represent as justly as possible a multi-layered, complex and often disorganized voice into a form that is accessible to the linear world of academic research. Given that it is perhaps inevitable that researchers use their own voice in this process, we argue that in conducting research with children, we need to engage both the children as participants and the researchers as advocates for children’s perspectives.

Conducting Violence Research Across Multiple Family Generations and with Young Children: Findings from a Mixed-Methods Pilot Study in South Africa

“…This fits with previous findings that the quality of interview data from child participants depends on the skill of the interviewer modifying their approach to fit the needs of the specific child and their engagement (Danby et al, 2011 ). As knowledge of cognitive and other developmental features of childhood stages is essential to selecting and utilising appropriate interview techniques when working with a young child, fieldwork staff skilled in understanding the stages of development in early childhood, knowing the normal abilities of each stage, and being able to provide appropriate play and accommodations within each stage would be able to conduct this research and obtain quality data with all the children in our sample (Caldairou-Bessette et al, 2020 ; Cameron, 2005 ). We found it essential to provide mentoring that focused on value clarification to better equip our fieldworkers to interview young children.…”

The Use of Graphic Facilitation to Support Adherence to OCAP® Principles in Research With Indigenous Communities

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