In Australia, approximately 27.4% of primary school students and 35.9% of secondary school students report high levels of anxiety, depression, or both (Kohler & Reece, 2024). These figures have remained stable since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important then that programs that aim to address the wellbeing of children and young people, including those designed within the spectrum of suicide prevention, are evaluated effectively.
Evaluation can explore the impacts of programs on children and young people in a number of ways. Critical, however, is engaging with the children and young people that the program is designed to benefit. Involving children and young people in evaluation ensures that we arrive at evaluations that accurately reflect their experiences and capture the outcomes they consider most important.
However, involving children and young people in evaluations can be difficult. It can prompt ethical concerns in relation to their comprehension of research, capacity to provide consent, and potential coercion by parents. In the context of suicide prevention, it can also create concerns about safety and readiness. Given these additional complexities, the default tendency can be to exclude children and young people from evaluation.
Using our recent experience, which includes evaluations of two youth suicide aftercare services that actively involved children and young people, we will demonstrate how to effectively navigate the sensitivities and complexities associated with the engagement of children and young people in evaluation.
The first part of this presentation will discuss ethical considerations and explain how children and young people can be safeguarded from unnecessary risks.
The second part will explore how to ensure children and young people meaningfully participate in evaluations with youth-centred innovative solutions. This will incorporate conversation on the developmental benefits of meaningful participation and explain guidelines and good practice for productive engagement.
This session will provide valuable insights, actionable strategies, and an opportunity for participants to reflect on their own practices.
Sharon Marra-Brown and Mitch Rice-Brading are evaluators with extensive experience in designing, delivering and reporting on evaluations that include data collection with children and young people. They recognise the unique needs of this population, coupled with the understandably cautious stance of ethics committees. This understanding underscores their thoughtful and deliberate approach to evaluations involving children and young people. They believe children and young people have the right to have a say about their experiences, and evaluations that avoid their involvement risk perpetuating ongoing inequities.