Who Participates and How? A Systematic Review of Child Participation in Well-being Research

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2026-08-19

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Akcabağ, Esra
Peker, Canan

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The voices of the children were historically silenced by the dominant societal conceptualization of childhood and children (James et al., 1998). With the emergence of the New Sociology of Childhood framework, children started to be conceptualized as active agents who can use their voices and contribute to the knowledge production (James & Prout, 1997; Corsaro, 2005). This perspective has been widely acknowledged and emphasized in Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations,1989). In line with this, the child participation perspective has brought increased attention to recognizing children as capable, autonomous, active agents in decision-making in all aspects of life (Palaiologou, 2014). This recognition also reflected on the process of conducting research with children. More precisely, the literature highlights a shift from involving children as passive agents of research to involving them as active agents whose participation is valued (e.g., Lane et al., 2019; Palaiologou, 2014). Specifically, within the context of child well-being, several scholars highlighted the importance of this transition by emphasizing the necessity of adopting a “research with children” perspective rather than “research on children”, positioning them as having active roles in measuring and monitoring their well-being (Ben-Arieh et al., 2001; Ben-Arieh, 2005; Fattore et al., 2009). OECD (2021) defined it as a multidimensional and forward-looking concept, focusing on four main outcomes of child well-being: material, physical health, cognitive/educational, and social, emotional, and cultural, serving as a valuable conceptualization for policies and research.By enabling child participation in research and policy, well-being actions correspond to the children’s real-life circumstances, instead of relying on the adult guesses (Moore & Lynch, 2018; Hernández-Torran et al., 2025). Importantly, to gain an understanding of each child’s well-being and enhance their well-being through research and policy, it is also important to reach children’s understanding of well-being from diverse backgrounds, as their well-being understanding alters with their context and characteristics, such as socioeconomic background (Fattore et al., 2009). Taken together, in child well-being research, making children active agents and reaching children from diverse backgrounds may warrant further attention.The existing literature includes a number of review studies focusing on the voices of the children in the research (Sun et al, 2023 & Lane et al., 2019). Several review studies have also examined the children's well-being in the literature (Domínguez-Serrano & del Moral-Espín, 2022). Despite the existence of literature for each topic individually, their intersectionality has received limited attention. Given the importance of children’s voices in the well-being research, a need for undertaking a review on child participation in child well-being research may arise.Drawing upon these, this study is grounded in providing a review of the current literature on taking the voices of children into consideration in their well-being through research. The review will be informed by the New Sociology of Childhood (James & Prout, 1997), which conceptualizes children as active and social agents. Grounded in this theoretical framework, the study aims to systematically review empirical research to analyze child participation in child well-being research by focusing on children’s forms of participation, data collection methods, and characteristics of the participant children.The research questions are:1. How do children participate in child well-being research, and whose voices are used to produce data regarding children in child well-being research?1.1. What are the forms in which children participate in child well-being research?1.2. What data collection methods are used to collect data directly from children in child well-being research?1.3. What are the characteristics of children participating in child well-being research in terms of age, geographical region, gender, disability status, and migration status?Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThis study is designed as a systematic literature review to analyze the participation of children in the research on child well-being. Data collection will be conducted in accordance with the standards by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (Page et al., 2021). Data will be obtained from three academic databases, including Web of Science, Scopus, and ERIC.The following keywords which are driven by the initial scanning will be used to identify related studies: “child”/“children”/“preschooler*”, “well-being”/ “mental health”/“physical health”/ “social well-being”/“emotional well-being”/ “cognitive well-being” “educational well-being”, “child participation”/“children participation”/“participatory”, “voice*”/“child perspective*”/“children’s perspective*” will be used in searching for studies. In the process, Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) will be used for effectiveness.Studies will be included based on the pre- determined eligibility criteria. Studies will be included in the analysis if they (1) are published between 2015 and 2026, (1) are published in English, (3) conduct empirical research, (3) primarily focus on child well-being, and (3) include children aged between 0 and 8 as participants. In the following step, studies will be scanned according to the eligibility, and studies will be excluded if they (1) are duplicated studies, (2) are not related to the scope of the research, or (3) do not include the children directly as participants.The selected studies will be analyzed by two researchers using descriptive content analysis informed by the New Sociology of Childhood framework. The initial codes were established based on the research question, theoretical framework, and initial literature review. In the second stage of analysis, the codes will be refined based on the data. The final step of the analysis will be synthesizing the emerging codes into higher-order categories to map the child’s participation in the well-being research. Each stage of the analysis will be conducted by two researchers independently. To ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of the analysis, an inter-coding agreement procedure will be implemented.The findings will be presented using descriptive categories and themes to highlight the forms of child participation in the well-being research and the characteristics of the participant children.Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe findings of the current study are expected to indicate that children’s participation in well-being research is framed in a researcher-centered way rather than centering the child’s participation. It is anticipated that children participate in studies most frequently as data providers in the data collection process. In contrast, their participation in other forms, such as participant researchers, is relatively rare.Additionally, findings are expected to reveal that interviews, observations, and surveys are the most frequently used data collection methods by the researchers. On the other hand, child-centered data collection methods such as participatory activities, art-based activities, and child-led discussions are less likely to be identified in the related research.Even though the data collection is still in progress, the primary review of the literature points out that children from Western countries are overrepresented in the well-being research compared to children from non- Western countries. The analysis is also likely to point out that younger children and children from marginalized backgrounds, such as children with special needs and immigrant children, are less frequently represented in well-being research.Overall, the findings of the study are expected to present how the children’s participation is framed in the well-being research. In addition, the study aims to reveal the patterns about the characteristics of the children whose voices are included in the well-being research and those who are not included. By presenting the patterns of participant children in the well-being research, the findings can raise the question of how child well-being is framed and which children are represented in the findings. Followingly, the study can contribute to the current discussions on child participation by systematically presenting how the children’s voices are included or not included in research on their well-being.ReferencesBen-Arieh, A., Kaufman, N.H., Andrews, A.B., Goerge, R.M., Lee, B.J., Aber, J.L. (2001). Measuring and Monitoring Children’s Well-Being and the Making of Policy. In: Measuring and Monitoring Children’s Well-Being. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2229-2_8Ben-Arieh, A. (2005). Where are the children? Children's role in measuring and monitoring their well-being. Social Indicators Research, 74(3), 573–596. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-004-4645-6Domínguez-Serrano, M., & del Moral-Espín, L. (2022). The capability approach and child well-being: A systematic literature review. Child Indicators Research, 15(6), 2043-2063.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-022-09953-1Fattore, T., Mason, J. and Watson, E. (2009) When Children Are Asked about Well-Being: Towards a Framework for Guiding Policy. Child IndicatorsResearch, 2, 57-77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12187-008-9025-3Hernández-Torrano, D., Ibrayeva, L., Sergazina, M., Burambayeva, A., Kulsary, A., Vella-Brodrick, D., & Eadie, P. (2025). What makes young children happy? Exploring well-being through children’s perspectives in early childhood education. Early Childhood Education Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-025-02081-9James, A., Jenks, C., & Prout, A. (1998). Theorizing childhood. Polity Press.Lane, D., Blank, J., & Jones, P. (2019). Research with Children: Context, Power, and Representation. The Qualitative Report, 24(4), 693-704.https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3556Moore, A., & Lynch, H. (2018). Understanding a child’s conceptualisation of well-being through an exploration of happiness: The centrality of play, people and place. Journal of Occupational Science, 25(1), 124-141. https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2017.1377105Page, M. J., McKenzie, J. E., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., ... & Moher, D. (2021). The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. bmj, 372.Palaiologou, I. (2014). ‘Do we hear what children want to say?’ Ethical praxis when choosing research tools with children under five. Early Child Development and Care, 184(5), 689–705. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2013.809341Sun, Y., Blewitt, C., Edwards, S., Fraser, A., Newman, S., Cornelius, J., & Skouteris, H. (2023). Methods and ethics in qualitative research exploring young children’s voice: A systematic review. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 22,https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069231152449OECD (2021), Measuring What Matters for Child Well-being and Policies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/e82fded1-enUnited Nations. (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Convention on the Rights of the Child OHCHR

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https://hdl.handle.net/11511/120231

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Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Conference / Seminar