Pittman: Historical Background

Alison Pittman, NURS 7455

Introduction

The following sources discuss the target research population of middle school U.S. children.  I believe these reference documents to be an appropriate collection of this population’s positionality to a nursing or public health researcher.  These sources were selected because of their emphasis on children and families and the unique opportunities and challenges they present to the researcher.

Barratt, R., Levickis, P., Naughton, G., Gerner, B., & Gibbons, K. (2013). Why families choose not to participate in research: Feedback from non‐responders. Journal of paediatrics and child health, 49(1), 57-62.

The authors of this article approached families who chose not to participate in a community-based family study involving childhood obesity and investigated reasons for refusal to participate.  The main reason for non-participation was “lack of time,” warranting a need to modify recruitment to emphasize the impact of childhood overweight and obesity, and hopefully help families to understand the “payoff” of time commitment.  Other significant reasons for non-participation included low priority topic, inappropriate timing of the request, fear of negative experiences, and a poor initial contact with the family.  The article helped to outline why families don’t respond to research studies.  One limitation to the article is it did not include families who actively refused to participate instead of non-responding, but this was not possible due to ethical reasons.  Overall the article helped to provide top reasons families don’t participate in child research and offer some preliminary tips to improve recruitment.

Ethical Research Involving Children: Getting Started. Retrieved from http://childethics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ERIC-compendium-Getting-Started-section-only.pdf
This document offers questions to guide ethical issues regarding research on children.  The questions cover many anticipated issues in this field, including many that may not come to mind to beginning researchers (for example, “What resources do you have to provide to children who may become distressed?”).  The questions posed truly made me rethink the structure of my proposed project in many ways, including planning, writing, consent, and incentives.

Govea J. Ethical concerns regarding interventions to prevent and control childhood obesity. Prev Chronic Dis 2011;8(5):A91. http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2011/sep/10_0288.htm. Accessed January 22, 2014.

This is the first of several articles in a special issue of Preventing Chronic Disease which address a selection of the most important and understudied aspects of childhood obesity interventions—the ethical implications of what we recommend or implement. They examine issues such as the stigma associated with obesity, the rights and responsibilities of parents, the role of advertising and marketing, and consideration for children with special health care needs.

Greig, A., Taylor, J., & MacKay, T. (Eds.). (2007). Doing Research with Children. (2^nd ed.). London, England: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: http://dx.doi.org.lib-ezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/10.4135/9781849209045

This textbook, now in its third edition, is one of the few widely used texts which focuses solely on children as a research population.  It outlines the process of creating, executing, and writing research on children, with a focus of having the child as an active (not passive) subject.  The child is viewed as a partner in the project, and the process is completed with them, not to them.  This approach appeals to the modern researcher much more than older references which do not view the child as an active member.  The text outlines theoretical frameworks, quantitative and qualitative research design, special issues, and ethics.  It truly will be a very valuable source for the beginning researcher.  The second edition will be used as it is the one available through online library sources.

Kodish, E. (2005). Ethics and Research with Children : A Case-based Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

This reference approaches research with children through individual cases explained by the scholars who completed the studies.  Learning from other researchers’ experiences is something I crave, and I found these stories to be helpful in many ways, including determining the authoritative role of the parent, compensation, the role of the older child (which I will be targeting), and other moral/ethical issues.  There are 18 cases including ones on healthy children, at-risk children, and seriously ill children.  I particularly found the case study on community-based research involving children to be helpful.  It outlines the movement of health research from advanced medical centers out to the community and embraces the “messy” obstacles to conducting research in the “real world.”

As a result of this literature review, I have learned that community and school research involving children comes with a specific set of concerns.  I will need to understand and explore the additional ethical concerns, protective needs, planning and design before pursuing this subject population.  I would like to pursue further the age group of middle school children or early adolescence and see if literature exists which focuses specifically on this age group of children as I was unable to find scholarly resources on this to date.

All the resources noted that one of the greatest challenges is getting children and their families to consent to research and view the time and effort involved as valuable.  Therefore, the research question with this population that I would like to address during this course is:  What strategies can be implemented to obtain optimal interest and participation from the middle school student and family?  I would like to start my research with the best possible likelihood of having children and their families see the value in this research topic.