Honoring childhood agency in developmental research: Best practices, applications, and insights

Abstract

Pediatric research requires caregivers to provide informed consent on behalf of their children. While not a formal requirement for children under the age of seven, it is important to involve child participants in the assent and decision-making processes in developmentally appropriate ways. This is especially important in longitudinal research, where the extent to which a developing child understands study tasks evolves over time. Although there is consensus that assent procedures are important and necessary, limited resources synthesizing strategies for pediatric researchers to encourage positive and respectful research experiences for young children exist. We describe methods used in an ongoing longitudinal study following caregiver-infant dyads from gestation through five years of child age. Study visits include repeated assessment of children's behavioral, cognitive, and physical development. Additionally, we describe observations from a study that used art-based approaches to enhance agency during study visits with five-to ten-year-olds. We describe methods for promoting agency in research contexts including potential modifications based on developmental milestone achievement. We detail strategies for assessing and responding to child behaviors that may indicate dissent. By synthesizing this information, we provide a comprehensive resource that may be used to encourage positive and respectful research experiences for children. Such experiences are likely to improve data quality and retention and uphold developmental research ethics. Further, this work contributes to a larger conversation about child agency, which has been occurring for decades across academic disciplines. Promoting children's agency in research also has potential to promote healthy long-term outcomes for developing children.