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. 2018 Jun 28;18(1):507.
doi: 10.1186/s12913-018-3219-2.

Children and young people's participation in developing interventions in health and well-being: a scoping review

Ingrid Larsson  1 , Carin Staland-Nyman  2 , Petra Svedberg  2 , Jens M Nygren  2 , Ing-Marie Carlsson  2
Affiliations

Children and young people's participation in developing interventions in health and well-being: a scoping review

Ingrid Larsson et al. BMC Health Serv Res. .

Abstract

Background: Greater interest is being shown in participatory approaches, especially in research on interventions that concern children and young people's health and well-being. Although participatory approaches have user involvement in common, they differ in terms of the explicit guidance on how to actually involve and engage children and young people in health research. The aim of this scoping review was to systematically map recent research involving children and young people in the development of interventions targeting issues of health and well-being.

Methods: An interpretative scoping literature review based on: a scientific literature search in (health and social science) databases, reference lists, a manual search in key journals and contact with existing networks was conducted. A total of 4458 references were identified through the literature search, of which 41 studies published between 2000 and 2017 were included in the review. The target population was children and young people under 25 years old. Level of participation was categorized according to Shier's Pathways to Participation Model.

Results: The review showed that participatory approaches were most often used in the development of interventions in school settings and in community and healthcare settings and on issues concerning support in lifestyle or in managing illness or disease. The level of participation varied from children and young people taking part just as active informants, through stages of greater participation both in quantitative and qualitative terms, to children and young people becoming an active agent involved as a co-researcher where the research process was shaped by views of a higher level of mutuality. Most of the studies were categorised at a medium level and only three studies were judged to involve the children and young people at the highest level.

Conclusions: This scoping review showed that work remains in enabling children and young people to influence the development of interventions targeting health and well-being. In relation to level of sustainability in the interventions, it is relevant that goals, strategies and processes are formulated by those who can gain from the interventions. Participatory approaches aiming for a higher level of participation where children and young people work together with the researchers in partnerships are thus warranted.

Keywords: Children; Intervention; Participatory approach; Scoping review; User involvement; Young people.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable, since it is a scoping review of previously published papers.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart of literature search and selection
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Focus and issues of the interventions and the continent and research settings
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Applied description of Shier’s Pathways to Participation Model in relation to included studies in the current scoping review
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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