CALL FOR CHAPTER ABSTRACTS
Resolving ethical challenges in youth research
Editors: Dr Kitty te Riele (UTS, Australia) & Dr Rachel Brooks (Brunel University, UK)
Research, like everyday life, often generates ethical dilemmas in which it may be impossible to find
agreement on what is right or wrong. The ethical conduct of research always requires deliberation on
values and principles, exercise of judgment, and an appreciation of context. Youth research presents
specific ethical challenges that can’t always be appropriately dealt with through standard ethical
procedures for researching adults or younger children.
This edited collection will be organised around resolving ethical challenges faced by scholars doing
research with youth. It will not be a textbook but rather provide analyses of real ethical challenges that
are of particular relevance to youth researchers. We define young people as aged 12-25.
SAGE has shown initial interest in this book idea, and has asked us to submit the full proposal for review
in January 2011.
The idea of the book is that it will be comprehensive in terms of:
 research fields: health, education, leisure, law / juvenile justice, youth work, media studies,
family and other relationships etc,
 research approaches: small/large scale, qualitative/quantitative/mixed etc,
 part of the world: including several continents.
Each chapter will:
 identify an ethical issue that the author has personally experienced in the context of researching
young people,
 explain why that was a challenge (with reference to ethical theory or research ethics guidelines
and other relevant literature),
 outline how the author resolved the issue and his/her justification for this approach (drawing on
relevant literature), and
 provide advice and draw out broader implications, based on personal lessons learnt and relevant
ethical research and social ethics literature.
We will organise the book around key themes. Below are some themes we expect may be useful (based
on ethical duties) and examples of ethical challenges for each. If your chapter idea doesn’t neatly fit any
of these themes, submit it anyway, as we may well end up tweaking the themes.
Non-Injury, Harm-prevention and Reparation
Researchers need to endeavour to minimise the likelihood of harm resulting directly or indirectly from
the research to young participants, and to offer reparation if harm does occur. Ethical challenges may
include:
 balancing harm and benefit, when achieving the benefits inevitably also involves some harm to
(some) young people;
 keeping young people’s identity confidential even for ‘insiders’ in the issue/field when this may
be impossible (e.g. in the context of a school or other organisation, or in the context of
cyberspace); it also may be impossible for the researchers to predict whether that knowledge by
insiders will lead to harm or benefit, let alone prevent any harm;
 the paradox of ‘confidentiality’ when researching illicit activity that may cause harm to young
people.
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Beneficence and Self-improvement
Where possible, research should not just avoid harm but actively foster benefits for young people.
Moreover, researchers also have a duty to improve their own wisdom through the research. Ethical
challenges may include:
 how to balance the immediate benefits for the young people participating in the research with
longer term benefits for young people generally;
 what do you do when some young people consider the research crucial and of great benefit and
others don’t want it done?
 if you have professional skills (for example, teaching, counseling, legal expertise) that may
benefit a participant, it is ethically acceptable to use those skills? How do you balance mixed
roles as researcher and professional?
 how do you negotiate your pre-existing/ongoing relationships with young participants before,
during and after the research project? E.g. research in your own organisation, or not wanting to
simply disappear from young people’s lives after the project is completed;
 how to genuinely listen and learn from young people, even if that is quite difficult or challenging
for you.
Justice
Researchers have a responsibility to ensure the benefits and burdens of taking part in research are
distributed fairly. Ethical challenges may include:
 who gets to participate? How do you ensure that there is no unfair burden of participation on
particular groups? How do you ensure young people on the margins have a chance to
participate?
 who benefits? How do you ensure there is a fair distribution of the benefits of participation?
 how do you deal with the difference in power between you as the researcher and the
participants? E.g. young people as subjects, participants or co-researchers.
 how to engage participants with follow up and reporting back. What if the young people are no
longer interested in the topic (last year is so long ago)? Or what if you cannot find them any
more (they have no stable address, or have left the organisation where you did the research)?
Fidelity & Gratitude
This is about being honest and keeping promises. Researchers also need to demonstrate gratitude for
the effort and time participants give to the research. Ethical challenges may include:
 how to ensure consent is genuinely informed (and the role of parents/guardians);
 how to balance giving authentic voice to young people (especially if they are in a disadvantaged
position) with critical analysis. Is it ‘ungrateful’ or ‘unfair’ to report critical findings?
 is it OK to change the focus of your research from what you told participants at the start,
because an unexpected, interesting tangent has appeared, or new knowledge has become
available from other research?
 conflicting expectations re. participant payments, for example from university ethics committees
and youth organisations.
Process
We will select the most appropriate, interesting and well written chapters abstracts, and include these in
a full book proposal to SAGE in January 2011. We will let you know whether your abstract is included
early in January 2011. Once SAGE accepts the full proposal we will ask for your complete chapter within
6 months. Depending on how long SAGE takes to review the proposal, we expect to need your full and
final chapter around September 2011.
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Resolving ethical challenges in youth research
Editors: Dr Kitty te Riele (UTS, Australia) & Dr Rachel Brooks (Brunel University, UK)
CALL FOR CHAPTER ABSTRACTS
If you are interested in contributing a chapter to this proposed book, please complete the form below,
and email to:
kitty.teriele@uts.edu.au
by Monday 1st November 2010.
First author
Title & Name:
Email address:
Institution:
Additional author(s) (please copy as needed)
Title & Name:
Email address:
Institution:
Your Chapter
Title:
Theme:





Non-Injury, Harm-prevention and Reparation
Beneficence and Self-improvement
Justice
Fidelity & Gratitude
Other, namely:
Age group:



legally ‘minors’ (usually 12-17)
legally adults (usually 18-25)
both
Country / region where
research took place:
Research approach:
(20 words)
Abstract:
(250 - 350 words)
Please make sure to:
 explain the ethical
challenge;
 outline and justify
the resolution; and
 suggest some
implications or
conclusions
Many thanks!
Kitty & Rachel
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