Doing Research with Children

Abstract

The rest of this book is based on empirical research into children’s involvement in decisions. The research was intended to find out how far children are being involved in decisions since the implementation of the Children Act 1989 and to learn something about what factors enhance or impede their involvement. The first piece of research was carried out in a local authority where I was employed, and consisted of a small number of interviews with children together with a brief quantitative analysis of participation in decision-making meetings. This was followed by a study in seven local authorities which combined a much fuller quantitative survey of children’s involvement in decision-making meetings with a larger series of open-ended interviews with children, social workers, carers and parents. Before looking at the research more closely, we need to locate it in relation to social research methods in general, and to some issues that are specific to research involving children.