CHILDRENS CAPACITY TO AGREE TO PSYCHOLOGICAL-RESEARCH - KNOWLEDGE OF RISKS AND BENEFITS AND VOLUNTARINESS

A series of studies investigated the capacity of children between the ages of 7 and 12 to give free and informed consent to participation in psychological research. Children were reasonably accurate in describi ng the purpose of studies, but many did not understand the possible be nefits or especially the possible risks of participating. In several s tudies children's consent was not affected by the knowledge that their parents had given their permission or by the parents saying that they would not be upset if the children refused. In contrast, other studie s found that children were much more likely to stop their participatio n if the experimenter said explicitly that she would not be upset if t hey stopped. We suggest that experimenters should pay more attention t o describing the possible risks and benefits of participation in resea rch, and that they should also make it clearer to children that they a re free to stop once they have begun.