Article type: Original Research
22 August 2019
Volume 44 Issue 4
Article type: Original Research
22 August 2019
Volume 44 Issue 4
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Where are the silences? A scoping review of child participatory research literature in the context of the Australian service system
Rebekah Grace1,2 * 
Jenny Knight1,2
Kelly Baird1,2
Jonathan Ng1,2
Harry Shier3
Sarah Wise4
Tobia Fattore5
Tom McClean6
Gill Bonser7
Sarah Judd-Lam8
Lynn Kemp1
Affiliations
1 Translational Research and Social Innovation (TReSI), School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Liverpool NSW, Australia
2 Department of Educational Studies, North Ryde NSW, Macquarie University, Australia
3 Centre for Children’s Rights, Belfast, Queens University Belfast, Ireland
4 Department of Social Work, Melbourne VIC, University of Melbourne, Australia
5 Department of Sociology, North Ryde NSW, Macquarie University, Australia
6 Uniting, North Parramatta NSW, Australia
7 Winangay Resources, Mays Hill NSW, Australia
8 Carers NSW, North Sydney NSW, Australia
Correspondence
* Rebekah Grace
Contributions
Rebekah Grace -
Jenny Knight -
Kelly Baird -
Jonathan Ng -
Harry Shier -
Sarah Wise -
Tobia Fattore -
Tom McClean -
Gill Bonser -
Sarah Judd-Lam -
Lynn Kemp -
Rebekah Grace1,2 *
Jenny Knight1,2
Kelly Baird1,2
Jonathan Ng1,2
Harry Shier3
Sarah Wise4
Tobia Fattore5
Tom McClean6
Gill Bonser7
Sarah Judd-Lam8
Lynn Kemp1
Affiliations
1 Translational Research and Social Innovation (TReSI), School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Liverpool NSW, Australia
2 Department of Educational Studies, North Ryde NSW, Macquarie University, Australia
3 Centre for Children’s Rights, Belfast, Queens University Belfast, Ireland
4 Department of Social Work, Melbourne VIC, University of Melbourne, Australia
5 Department of Sociology, North Ryde NSW, Macquarie University, Australia
6 Uniting, North Parramatta NSW, Australia
7 Winangay Resources, Mays Hill NSW, Australia
8 Carers NSW, North Sydney NSW, Australia
Correspondence
* Rebekah Grace
CITATION: Grace R., Knight J., Baird K., Ng J., Shier H., Wise S., Fattore T., McClean T., Bonser G., Judd-Lam S., & Kemp L. (2019). Where are the silences? A scoping review of child participatory research literature in the context of the Australian service system. Children Australia, 44(4), 2185. doi.org/10.1017/cha.2019.32
Abstract
This paper presents a scoping review of the literature on child participatory research in Australia published in academic journals between 2000 and 2018. The review focused on research designed to engage with children and young people in the development, implementation and evaluation of services. A total of 207 papers were identified and distributed across eight service sectors: child protection and family law, community, disability, education, health, housing and homelessness, juvenile justice and mental health. The papers were reviewed against Shier’s participation matrix, demonstrating that almost all of the identified papers included children only as participants who contributed data to adult researchers. Only a small number of papers involved children and young people in the other phases of research, such as designing research questions, analysis and dissemination. There is a clear interest in the engagement of children and young people in service design and decision-making in Australia. This paper is intended to serve as a catalyst for discussion on where there are gaps and where further Australian research is needed.