IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v149y2023ics0190740923001548.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What matters for child participation - The role of valuation-based dialogical participation for children living in kinship care in England

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Shuttleworth, Paul

Abstract

According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child a child has the right to be heard and included in all matters that affect them. Child participation in child welfare research, policy and practice also has instrumental and intrinsic value. However, participation and voice, especially with children, remain contested in how they are applied and theorised. This paper is an extract from research on what matters to 19 children living in kinship care in England. It focusses on the children’s reflections on what child participation means for research, for child welfare services, and for family life. This was the first study to combine a dialogical participative approach with critical realism. Multiple methods such as child-led tours, photo-elicitation, and visual methods were used to capture the children's valuations of their lives and participation. Theory-building alongside the child participants provided empirical certainty with an interpretivist awareness of subjectivities. Analysis of the children’s reflections reveal that voice and agency must be theorised as relational. Furthermore, the children desire inter-generational dialogical spaces to contemplate different views, explore what matters, and out their inner conversations. The children wish for discussions that listen to tensions rather than try to resolve them. Also, appropriate discussions that acknowledged interdependence aligned with the children feeling safe and cared for.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Shuttleworth, Paul, 2023. "What matters for child participation - The role of valuation-based dialogical participation for children living in kinship care in England," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:149:y:2023:i:c:s0190740923001548
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.106959
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740923001548
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.106959?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tatek Abebe, 2019. "Reconceptualising Children’s Agency as Continuum and Interdependence," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-16, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jeanette A. Lawrence & Agnes E. Dodds & Ida Kaplan & Maria M. Tucci, 2023. "Recognizing Relational Interactions with Social Institutions in Refugee Children’s Experiences of Intertwining Vulnerability and Agency," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(19), pages 1-12, September.
    2. Federica Cavazzoni & Alec Fiorini & Guido Veronese, 2022. "How Do We Assess How Agentic We Are? A Literature Review of Existing Instruments to Evaluate and Measure Individuals' Agency," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 1125-1153, February.
    3. Dagim Dawit Gonsamo & Herman Hay Ming Lo & Ko Ling Chan, 2021. "The Role of Stomach Infrastructures on Children’s Work and Child Labour in Africa: Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-26, August.
    4. Makhtoom Ahmed & Imran Sabir & Muhammad Zaman, 2022. "Children’s Perceptions of their Safety and Agency in Pakistan," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(3), pages 959-987, June.
    5. Abdullah, Alhassan & Cudjoe, Ebenezer & Bastian, Carmela & Jordan, Lucy P., 2024. "Passing the torch or breaking a cycle of intergenerational transmission of child labour: Reflections from the lived experiences of children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    6. Jennifer Fane & Colin MacDougall & Jessie Jovanovic & Gerry Redmond & Lisa Gibbs, 2020. "Preschool Aged Children’s Accounts of their Own Wellbeing: are Current Wellbeing Indicators Applicable to Young Children?," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(6), pages 1893-1920, December.
    7. Fatou N’dure Baboudóttir & Zeca Jandi & Bucar Indjai & Jónína Einarsdóttir & Geir Gunnlaugsson, 2023. "“Just Standing Still”: A Qualitative Study on Adolescents’ Experiences of School Closures Due to Emerging COVID-19 in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-11, March.
    8. Ting Ke, 2023. "The development of children’s autonomy and reasonable paternalistic intervention," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-7, December.
    9. Guido Veronese & Lorenzo Montali & Federica Cavazzoni & Daniela Mattiuzzi, 2022. "Toward a Culture-Informed Conceptualization of Child Agency in a Context Characterized by Political and Military Violence. A Qualitative Exploration throughout Experts’ Voices," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(4), pages 1379-1403, August.
    10. Meinrad Haule Lembuka, 2024. "The Relevance of Ubuntu Models in Child Alternative Care – A Case of Mama Mkubwa Model in Tanzania," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(8), pages 3174-3186, August.
    11. Mira Aurora Marlow & Rita Sørly & Heli Kyllikki Kaatrakoski, 2022. "Personal Stories of Young Women in Residential Care: Health-Promoting Strategies and Wellbeing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-12, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:149:y:2023:i:c:s0190740923001548. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.