Abstract: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out the rights to which all children should have access. Included in the Convention is children’s right to participate and have a say in matters affecting them. This right is equally applicable within a research context as it is in children’s everyday lives. This desk-top study reviews published ethics guidelines and university ethics documents associated with research involving children in school contexts, to determine the presence of children’s participation rights. It draws attention to how growing understandings of children’s participation rights, and the ethical issues associated with these, are inadequately encompassed within ethics guidelines and documents.

Abstract reproduced with permission. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Research Ethics, 21/3, July 2025 by SAGE Publications, Ltd., All rights reserved. © SAGE Publications, Ltd.

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Abstract:
Informed consent (IC) is a cornerstone of ethical research, ensuring participants are informed and provide voluntary agreement to participate. Yet IC remains complex, especially in research with young people, and practical examples for engaging youth meaningfully in IC processes are limited. Participatory visual methodologies engage youth as knowledge producers to think creatively, express diverse perspectives, and engage in dialog. This study explores how participatory visual methodologies can involve youth in IC by inviting them to create and discuss visual representations of its key concepts. Grounded in literature on research ethics with young people, we ask: How do young people in Cameroon represent some of the core concepts within IC visually, and what kinds of conversations emerge around these representations? To address these questions, we conducted workshops with 56 young people (10–16 years old) in Cameroon’s Southwest and Northwest Regions. Participants took photos to represent and discuss the benefits and risks of research, voluntary participation, and confidentiality as key elements of IC, and created visual representations of IC forms. Findings show that incorporating visual elements in IC prompted participants to critically engage with IC, facilitating a deeper contextualized and nuanced understanding and meaningful dialog about both the notion of consent and the study they are potentially consenting to. This study presents a case on adolescents and IC in an African context, emphasizing the importance of social and cultural factors in IC and contributing to literature that largely focuses on younger children in Western settings. Integrating participatory visual methods reframed IC as a collaborative, group-centered process rather than a researcher-driven, one-time event. These findings highlight the potential of participatory visual approaches to deepen youth engagement in research ethics, contributing to more equitable and locally relevant research practices.

Abstract reproduced with permission. The final, definitive version of this paper will be published in Research Ethics, Published Online Ahead of Print, May 2025 by SAGE Publications, Ltd., All rights reserved. © SAGE Publications, Ltd.

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This open access research note shares the ‘Research Ethics Tree,’ a tool  created to meaningfully engage children and young people in on-going, interactive conversations about informed consent and research participation. The tree is decorated with tokens covering key (but often abstract) informed consent concepts (such as confidentiality and anonymity) and permission relating to photography and recording. The children can engage with, take off and handle the tokens as the discuss, ask questions and revisit the different concepts.

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In this paper the authors describe the Teens Talk Vaping project which took a by-youth-for-youth research approach to co-produce research and o inform evidence-based vaping education materials for adolescents. A capacity-building program was developed to equip seven teenagers from the Human Environments Analysis Laboratory Youth Advisory Council with qualitative research skills to contribute as co-researchers to all phases of the project, from conceptualization through to dissemination. The authors then evaluated the process, with findings offering insights into the positive implications and practical limitations of the capacity-building program.

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Abstract: This paper explores how research advisory groups can be a vehicle for youth activism. It draws on our experiences with young activists, aged 15–26 years, in India and Brazil, who were advisors on a research project focused on youth livelihoods in cities. These young people played a vital role in supporting youth researchers, identifying research themes and developing engagement and advocacy strategies. Through this paper, we explore how the Youth Expert Group advisory model evolved differently in each location and examine how these were shaped by the context, the ‘adult’ research team and the youth activists themselves. A critically reflexive response in intergenerational partnership is essential to support youth activists in research activities. (Abstract published by arrangement with Wiley Subscription Services, Inc.).

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This article explores the expansion of, and best practice, for young people’s research advisory groups, specifically in relation to patient-oriented health care.

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In this paper the authors report on a decade of conducting adolescent advisory groups in South Africa (2008-2018) and reflect on youth advisory processes. Findings suggest that adolescent co-creation of research is feasible, even with very vulnerable adolescents, although ethical considerations need to be carefully addressed. Benefits include increased methodological rigour, enhanced adolescent acceptability of research and the recalibration of research dynamics for the empowerment of their target beneficiaries.

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This commentary describes the development, benefits, challenges, and lessons learned from the first YAB at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) Collaborative Research on MEdication use & family health (CRoME) Lab alongside feedback from the youth members.

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Abstract
Background
The benefits of embedding youth voices in research is increasingly recognised by researchers, national funding bodies and young people. To ensure that best practice youth participation models can be implemented, it is paramount that existing models and practices are described, and the impacts of these models are subsequently evaluated.

Aims
This study aimed to: i) describe the implementation of a Youth Advisory Board (YAB) in a mental health and substance use research centre; ii) assess staff and YAB perspectives regarding the implementation of the YAB; and iii) ascertain suggestions for how the voices of young people could be better integrated into research.

Methods
Staff (n = 19) and YAB members (n = 7) completed an online survey regarding their perceptions of youth participation in research and on the impact of the YAB.

Results
Staff cited various barriers to involving young people more directly in research (such as time and funding) and YAB members offered suggestions for improving youth participation further (such as increasing professional development opportunities and involving YAB members at the beginning stages of projects).

Conclusions
These findings highlight the importance of overcoming barriers to engaging young people in research so these models may continue to meet the needs of young people and researchers. To achieve this, dedicated youth participation funding and longitudinal evaluation of relevant models is required.

Abstract reproduced with permission. Article published in Mental Health & Prevention © Copyright Elsevier 2022.

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This paper reports on the outcomes of the research team working with Your Rheum, a United Kingdom young person’s advisory group (ages 11–24 years) comprising young people diagnosed with rheumatic condition(s), to explore research recruitment strategies for young people.

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