Ethical principles guiding research on child and adolescent subjects

Understanding the ethical principles that should guide research with child and adolescent participants is an essential task for researchers. Principle s do not always yield final or uncontroversial answers, but they do sense t o clarify and justify decisions, and their use makes individual decisions a nd research policies more public and open to examination The principles of scientific importance, scientific soundness, respect for autonomy, benefice nce, nonmaleficence, utility, and justice are described herein. The embodim ent of these principles in the federal guidelines governing research is dis cussed, with attention to the differences between wronging and harming subj ects and the meaning of informed consent.