Encouraging greater empowerment for adolescents in consent procedures in social science research and policy projects

The CO-CREATE project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 774210.The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasizes the importance of allowing children and adolescents to influence decisions that are important to them following their age and maturity. This paper explores the principles, practices, and implications around using parental versus child/adolescent consent when participating in social science research and policy development. Experiences from two studies are presented: The Confronting Obesity: Co-creating policy with youth (CO-CREATE) and the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborative Cross-National study. Although parental consent may be an important gatekeeper for protecting children and adolescents from potentially harmful research participation, it may also be considered an obstacle to the empowerment of children and adolescents in case they want to share their views and experiences directly. This paper argues that evaluation of possible harm should be left to ethics committees and that, if no harm related to the research participation processes is identified and the project has a clear perspective on collaborating with the target group, adolescents from the age of 12 years should be granted the legal capacity to give consent to participate in the research project. Collaboration with adolescents in the development of the research project is encouraged.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The association between sharing something difficult on social media and mental well-being among adolescents. Results from the “LifeOnSoMe”-study

Introduction: Social media use is part of everyday life for adolescents. Over the last decade, concerns about the potential negative effects of social media use on mental health and well-being has been raised. Possible positive effects of social media use have to a lesser extent been explored. However, some studies have found associations between social support on social media and well-being. Self-disclosing thoughts and feelings on social media might provide social support and positively affect well-being. The current study aimed to explore adolescents’ experiences with sharing something difficult on social media and the association with well-being. Methods: The survey data in this cross-sectional study were collected from a sample of 2023 adolescents from senior high schools (mean age 17.4, 55.6% females). Mental well-being was measured using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being scale (WEMWBS). Multiple linear regression adjusting for age, gender, social media frequency/duration of use, and the number of close friends was used to explore the association of sharing something difficult on social media and mental well-being. Results: The findings indicated that sharing something difficult on social media, either with a few friends/family members or in a public post, was associated with lower well-being. Perceived social support (easier to talk about, received support, positive experience) after sharing something difficult was associated with higher well-being. Females reported sharing something difficult more than boys, but no interaction effect of gender was found in the associations between private or public sharing and well-being. Discussion: The results indicate that social media can serve as a supportive environment for adolescents. Future research may want to explore additional aspects of adolescents’ social media use, sharing, and well-being, such as differences in public and private sharing. Such contributions will increase the knowledge base of optimal ways to seek social support through social media.publishedVersio

Ethical considerations in engaging young people in European obesity prevention research: The CO-CREATE experience

Engaging youth in obesity prevention research and policy action is essential to develop strategies that are relevant and sensitive to their needs. Research with young people requires critical reflection to safeguard their rights, dignity, and well-being. The CO-CREATE project used various methods to engage approximately 300 European youth aged 15–19 years in the development of policies to prevent adolescent obesity. This paper discusses ethical considerations made in the project pertaining to the youth's voluntary participation, their protection from obesity stigma, respect for their time, data privacy and confidentiality, power balance, and equality of opportunity to participate in the research. We describe measures implemented to prevent or limit the emergence of ethical challenges in our interaction with youth and discuss their relevance based on our experience with implementation. While some challenges seemingly were prevented, others arose related to the youth's voluntary participation, time burdens on them, and the sustainability of participation under the Covid-19 pandemic. Concrete and ongoing ethical guidance may be useful in projects aiming to interact and build collaborative relationships with youth for long periods of time.publishedVersio