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Many complex ethics questions arise in the conduct of longitudinal research in low- and - middle income countries (LMICs), particularly in studies that involve children and other potentially vulnerable social groups over long periods of time. Young Lives strives to adhere to agreed ethical standards which emphasise principles of justice, respect and informed consent, and of maximising benefits while avoiding doing harm to the people in our study. Whist there is a well-developed ethics literature on children and youth in social research, less is published on the lessons learned in navigating research ethics in longitudinal studies. This report outlines some of the main ethics challenges faced by Young Lives as they have tracked the 12,000 children who joined Young Lives 20 years ago, and who are now adolescents and young adults. The authors interviewed long-term members of the international research team (principal investigators, researchers, country directors, programme administrators, and policy, communications and data managers), across five countries (Ethiopia, India, Peru, Vietnam, and the UK). and drew on project documentation, including information from interviews with Young Lives families and fieldworkers’ notes to compile the report. The report features seven themes: informed consent; safeguarding; research relationships and reciprocity; sensitive questions; maintaining anonymity; using photos and visual images; and IRBs. For each theme, the authors offer key points of learning and illustrative examples from Young Lives experience, in particular highlighting aspects of change over time. By discussing the struggles as well as the successes, the report aims to contribute to the wider community of practice of longitudinal researchers working in LMICs.

This working paper describes a sub-study by Young Lives Ethiopia on conceptualisations and understandings of violence affecting children and youth in three Ethiopian communities (one rural, two urban). Qualitative research was undertaken in May 2017, in two phases, with a total of 120 participants, using individual interviews and group discussions with children, young adults, caregivers, and professionals. The study found a range of terms for and definitions of violence, with differences between the rural (Oromiffa-speaking) area, where violence included harm caused by poverty, and the two urban (Amharic-speaking) sites, where violence included abuse and exploitation. Some forms of violence were considered acceptable or unacceptable according to age and gender. Children were said to be punished at home or at school for a range or reasons, and violence was widely understood to have lasting negative effects. Children sought support from a range of people - mostly kin and friends, but occasionally from school clubs, headteachers, parent-teacher associations, and the police. There were powerful barriers to reporting sexual assault and rape. Generally, participants reported that there has been a reduction in violence overall, though some violent practices continued, and there was a sense that gender-based violence had increased, especially harassment of older girls. A marked intergenerational change was widely reported - especially in relation to reductions in the use of severe corporal punishment by parents - and was seen as a response to much greater awareness among caregivers of changes in the law and children's rights.

This summary is based on the Young Lives Responding to children's work: Evidence from the Young Lives study in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam report, highlighting the context in which this research was conducted, cross-country findings, and key implications for policy and practice.

Responding to children's work: Evidence from the Young Lives study in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam is a Young Lives summative report, synthesising research from the past 15 years on children's work.

In this summative report, Kirrily Pells and Ginny Morrow highlight Young Lives' key findings on violence affecting children, exploring what children say about violence, how it affects them, and the key themes that emerge from a systematic analysis of the children's accounts from our study countries of Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam.

This chapter discusses ethics questions related to researching children’s wellbeing. It explores some conceptual difficulties related to ‘well-being’, explains the background to research ethics, and links the two. It points to some of the ideological roots of research of well-being research, and the correspondent need for critical reflection. It draws on examples from previous research experiences, and from Young Lives, an ongoing longitudinal study of child poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam.

Child labour in India has long been the focus of research, policy concern and intervention. This paper presents a preliminary analysis of children's work in cottonseed production in Andhra Pradesh, drawing on evidence from two case studies from the qualitative component of Young Lives. In parts of rural Andhra Pradesh, children work in the cotton fields for two to three months of the school year. Children highlighted the importance of this work in their everyday lives and its consequences for their schooling. Evidence shows marked gender and age differentiation. In the early stages of cotton production, there was reported to be a cultural as well as an economic basis for children's work in cottonseed pollination, when it was believed that pre-pubescent girls were preferred for this kind of work, as they were considered to be 'pure'. However, this has shifted somewhat, and children appear to work in cotton pollination for economic reasons, as well as practical ideas that they are better-suited to this type of work because of their physical height and dexterity. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the research for discourses related to children’s rights in India.

This paper reviews interdisciplinary research on children's time use. Following the introduction, Section 2 sketches the broad historical and socio-cultural context for time-use studies, recognising that how childhood has been variously understood affects the valuation of children's activities, roles and relationships and the ways they are experienced. It will become clear that differing views about children's 'proper' time use have coincided with powerful assumptions about children's roles throughout history, and the 'value' of children's time. We offer a selective review of studies addressing time use from a range of disciplinary perspectives, in order to highlight how the use of time is not only associated with economic value, but also socio-cultural values. Whether or not certain children's activities are considered permissible, acceptable and appropriate by adult members of society largely depends upon how these activities fit into local value systems. Section 3 briefly explores subjective dimensions of time use, drawing on contrasting paradigms for studying how far children perceive time differently to adults. This question is addressed from a developmental psychological and social constructionist perspective. Finally, Section 4 offers an overview of research methods that have been utilised in studies of children's time use. This review is not exhaustive of methods in time-use research, but is intended as a summary resource for YL and other child researchers.

There is national and international concern about the effects of corporal punishment upon children, and its implications for their capacity to benefit from school, yet corporal punishment is still widely used in schools all over the world, despite being banned in national legislation in most countries. Nevertheless, the topic is under-researched in developing countries. This working paper discusses the experiences of children aged between 8 and 16 in Andhra Pradesh, India. It draws on analysis of Young Lives household survey and school survey data to produce descriptive statistics to give an indication of the extent of corporal and other forms of punishment in schools. The paper also draws on analysis of three rounds of qualitative data from interviews with children and with their parents or caregivers as well as in-depth interviews undertaken as part of the school survey. The paper explores children’s accounts of forms of punishment, how poverty is linked to corporal punishment, the reasons children give for punishment, how the punishment makes them feel, and the consequences punishment has not only for the quality of their learning at school, but also for the decisions they make about staying on in school or leaving school to start working.

This chapter discusses ethics questions related to researching children’s wellbeing. It explores some conceptual difficulties related to ‘well-being’, explains the background to research ethics, and links the two. It points to some of the ideological roots of research of well-being research, and the correspondent need for critical reflection. It draws on examples from previous research experiences, and from Young Lives, an ongoing longitudinal study of child poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam.

Research ethics exist to ensure that the principles of justice, respect, and the avoidance of harm are upheld, by using agreed standards. These principles are universal, though there many subtleties and diversities, and how principles are understood, interpreted, and practised can vary from place to place (Ulrich 2003). Following controversies involving deception and political involvement by researchers in the social sciences, ethical codes building on these principles were developed. These codes built on earlier ones developed for medical research on humans in the Nuremburg Code (1947, following the war crimes trials) and the Declaration of Helsinki (1964). The governance of research has expanded and now includes ethical practices in social research in general (ESRC 2005, 2010) and with children in particular (Alderson and Morrow 2011; Schenk and Williamson 2005). A burgeoning literature describes the processes, practices, and difficulties that occur in social research (see, for example, Armbruster and Laerke 2008; Iphofen 2009; Mertens and Ginsberg 2009; van den Hoonard 2002).