8. Conclusions
The key objective for researchers who involve children in their research is to use
tools and methods that could empower and enable children to be active participants
in the research process, not just objects of protection. Children should be given the
chance to express their opinions, learn about themselves and their rights, while
research activity must be regulated and the researchers must ensure that their rights
of consent, confidentiality and unobstructed communication are protected at all
times. On the same grounds, what also needs to be emphasized is the difference
between conducting research with children and with adults. Children are more
sensitive and ethical issues are of equal importance with methodological issues.
However, and despite the differences, researches involving children can also
function as examples of good practice, even for research involving adults, with close
attention paid to the process of obtaining informed consent and to providing
understandable information for research participants, attention to the unequal
power relations between participants and researchers, etc. Thus, research involving
children, when ethical, can set the standards for all types of researches, while at the
same time help researchers learn even more about childhood systematically and