Enhancing young children’s meaningful participation in research ethics processes through an interactive narrative approach

Young children's participation in research is explored through a children's rights perspective. The qualitative study focused on research ethics in informal science education contexts and introduced an interactive narrative approach to inform 3- and 4- year-old children about the purpose of their involvement and what would be required of them as participants. Children were found to be empowered to make informed choices, demonstrated high levels of engagement and revealed multi-layered understandings of informed consent processes. The thesis concluded that informed consent is not only an essential component of children's rights but can enhance research outcomes with young children.