REVIEW article
Front. Dev. Psychol.
Sec. Social and Emotional Development
Volume 3 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdpys.2025.1654278
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Rights and Needs of Children During Times of War and ConflictView all 6 articles
Ethical Challenges in Research Involving Children Affected by Armed Conflict
Provisionally accepted
- Hannover University of Applied Sciences, Hannover, Germany
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Studies examining the impact of armed conflict on children's lives must confront a variety of ethical challenges, which may arise at any point in the research process and often in unexpected ways. Procedural ethics is therefore not sufficient, needing to be complemented by ethics in practice. Drawing on a critical analysis of power inequities in research carried out with conflict-affected children, this article proposes a reflexive, care-ethical approach to dealing with 'ethically important moments' in research practice. It discusses how core principles of research ethics – such as informed consent, harm prevention and reciprocity – can be implemented when working with children in conflict settings as well as the respective challenges this may imply. It is argued that reflexivity based on care ethics is a collective practice involving not only researchers but also participants and other relevant actors alike.
Keywords: Armed conflict, Care ethics, Children, reflexivity, research ethics, War
Received: 26 Jun 2025; Accepted: 29 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 von Denkowski. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Cordula von Denkowski, Hannover University of Applied Sciences, Hannover, Germany
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