Research with children and young people on sensitive topics – the case of poverty and delinquency

Research into child poverty and juvenile delinquency shares two features: both involve children and sensitive topics. This article focuses on the critical problem of the quality of children’s participation in research. Some of the ethical and methodological challenges faced in two research projects, a self-report survey on juvenile delinquency and a multi-method study of low-income families, will be discussed. The construct of engagement is proposed as a rationale to address these challenges.