When discussing child well-being, we often rely on expert opinions and theoretical frameworks. However, the most authentic insights come directly from the children themselves. Unfortunately, the voices of children, especially those living in underprivileged conditions, are frequently overlooked in research and policymaking. This neglect can lead to well-intentioned initiatives that fail to address children's actual needs. To bridge this gap, it's essential to directly engage with the children and understand their unique perspectives. By listening to their voices, we can gain valuable insights into their priorities, challenges, and aspirations. This information can inform more effective policies and programs that genuinely support their development and well-being.
Child participation my research project
With this in mind, I did a three-month fieldwork study in Mauritius which aimed to understand what is important in the lives of underprivileged pre-schoolers. Most importantly, children themselves were the main participants in the study. To keep the children safe and perform the research in the right way, I collaborated with a local NGO, Terre De Paix, which runs several nursery and pre-primary schools in Mauritius. Considering the importance of early childhood due to rapid brain development until five years old and the abilities of the children to participate in the research it was decided to focus on the three pre-primary locations of Terre De Paix. In total, 36 children, all between three and five years old, joined in the research.
Child participation in research
The Lundy Model of Child Participation guided the research, to make sure that the children could say what they thought. Based on its four key elements which are space, voice, audience and influence I created three age-appropriate projects that were used for the children to express themselves. The first project consisted of a paper heart and 14 illustrations. These illustrations represented activities that the children are familiar with. For example, playing outside, colouring and a family in front of a house. The children had to choose their five favourite illustrations and put them into their hearts. The second project used the same 14 illustrations but for this project the children used three coloured sticks (red, orange and green) to grade the illustrations. If the children used the green stick this meant that they liked the activity showed on the illustration, orange that they were okay with it and red represented disliking. The third project was drawing a happy day, for this project the children were free to draw without any directions of others. These three projects aimed to understand what the children themselves found important. Aligning with the "influence" element, children chose the project they liked the most, which meant that they were deciding on how the study was conducted. Additionally, I organised interviews with staff members from Terre de Paix and parents to understand their perception of what is important for these children to compare it with the responses from the children. The final part of my research focused on analysing the children’s progress reports, to see what they were doing well and where they needed more help to improve their well-being.
Outcomes
During the three projects and when the children were asked about what they liked to do the most, they told us that spending time with their parents was super important. This theme was reflected throughout all three projects. In the first project, where the children selected their favourite illustration, the family-centred illustration was the most popular choice in two locations. In the second project, almost all children marked the family illustration as green. During the third project, most of the children drew their family members. When asking the children about why the drew their families or chose the family illustration the children replied that they do not get to spend a lot of time together with their parents. They told us that most of their parents were gone all day to earn money and that their biggest desire was to be at home and be with their parents the entire day. The need of wanting to spend time with parents is what academics refer to as 'the attachment theory’. This theory emphasizes the importance of strong parent-child bonds for child development and well-being.
During the interviews with the parents, they shared that for them education was the most important thing for their children. Their wishes circle back to the living environment of the families because they are currently living in areas that are unsafe and have limited access to necessary resources. Their wish for the children is to escape poverty and have a better life somewhere else. They said the only way to do that was to get a good education and learn the right skills for a good job. Teachers at Terre De Paix agreed that education is important, but they also said that the children are showing a great desire to spend more time with their parents. Finally, when we looked at the children their progress reports, we found that the overall scores in two of the three locations were higher across various developmental categories. This comparison suggests that where the children live, may be an underlying cause that is hindering the children’s development.
Lessons learned
In all three parts of my study, I saw how important parents are in the lives of these children. It became very clear that parents have a big impact on how well these children do. But when I talked to the parents, I realized that it was not that they did not want to spend more time with their children, it was just that their living circumstances held them back from this. Their ongoing struggle with fighting poverty resulted in their focus being on getting food on the table rather than spending time with their children. This made it very difficult to do new programs like the Care for Child Development project by UNICEF. The program focuses on providing parents and caregivers with the necessary skills to foster their children's development during the crucial early years. Even though this seems like a perfect solution to meet the needs of the children because of its focus on strengthening the relationship between child and parent while educating the children it is difficult to implement as the parents simply do not have any time. Therefore, in future research efforts, the focus should be on understanding how these families live and which areas of their lives can be improved to figure out how they can dedicate more time to their children and address their needs.
A child with their paper heart filled with its favourite activities.
Other Projects awarded Children's Rights Research funding articles
