Children’s participatory needs in injury prevention: reflections on supporting children’s right to invite and comfort in discussing sensitive topics

Abstract

BackgroundChild-centred approaches in injury prevention emphasise the importance of practising bidirectional communications and decentring researcher–child power relations to support children’s participation in research. To date, however, a dearth of scholarship offers methodological reflections on how to bolster children’s feelings of comfort in discussing sensitive topics such as their injury experiences.GoalDrawing from lessons we learnt working with children in a low-income to mid-income neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada, we discuss the ways in which our strategies to support their participation succeeded in, and at times fell short of, supporting their participatory needs.DiscussionOur discussions focus attention on two important areas for consideration in future injury prevention studies: (1) Children’s inclusion in research and the demand for them to share experience and (2) supporting children’s right to invite and comfort in discussing sensitive topics such as injury experiences. We discuss the benefits of making research fun for children and being sensitive to their needs at preliminary recruitment and data collection stages.ImplicationsThese discussions can strengthen researchers’ work with children by helping them to reflect on strategies that can bolster their desire to participate and feel comfortable sharing perspectives.