Ethics in research with vulnerable children

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to point out the importance of securing ethics in research in order to protect vulnerable children from psychological or physical harm during or after the research process. Numerous countries already have some regulations or guidelines related to human research and ethics committees are established to review and control are they sufficiently respected; however in the Republic of Macedonia there are not yet strict state regulations ih this field. It is not obligatory to obtain parental permission for the child involved in research. Researchers in their master and doctoral thesis or other research reports sometimes present photos, documents and research results announcing the name and other personal information of children. Other ethical issues are related to the child willingness to participate in the research and the conditions that the child experiences before and after the intervention of the researcher. Educational researchers should carefully assess the risks and benefits of children involved in research to use approved protocols and to consider any potential conflicts of interests that might occur with publishing the results of investigation. In the рарег we recommend establishing of an ethics review committee as independent body that will monitor, review, and approve educational research with vulnerable groups. The role of this committee will be to analyse the risks and benefits of the proposed research and to determine whether or not research should be done. In that way we will protect and ensure the rights and welfare of children participating as subjects in a research study.