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Children’s consent to child welfare services: Some explorative remarks
Author(s) -
Pösö Tarja
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
children and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-0860
pISSN - 0951-0605
DOI - 10.1111/chso.12483
Subject(s) - individualism , welfare , parental consent , informed consent , power (physics) , social welfare , psychology , social work , order (exchange) , health care , social psychology , sociology , medicine , political science , law , alternative medicine , business , physics , finance , pathology , quantum mechanics
In this article, children consenting to a care order proposal is explored as a form of meaningful participation as seen by care‐experienced young people. In contrast to health care and research ethics, almost no research exists on children's consent to child welfare measures. The findings suggest that instead of approaching children as individualistic rights‐holders, a more relational understanding about consenting is required, both conceptually and in practice, to acknowledge the social, emotional and power relations in which children's consent (or objection) becomes topical in child welfare. Without that recognition, consenting may be far from meaningful participation.