Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Lesser or just different? Capturing children''s...

Electronic data

View graph of relations

Lesser or just different? Capturing children''s voices in consumer research

Research output: Working paper

Published
Publication date2007
Place of PublicationLancaster University
PublisherThe Department of Marketing
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Publication series

NameMarketing Working Paper Series

Abstract

Child research has been conducted 'on' rather than 'with' children, and has often used parental proxies or opinion to account for the views of the child. Due to this the voice of the child has been unheard. Once access and ethical concerns have been addressed the adult researcher then has to decide which role to take when conducting research with children. Children are largely seen in one of three ways, and each perspective has an impact on the role the adult researcher could adopt. The first claims that children are entirely different from adults, and fosters the notion that they are unreliable and contaminated data sources. The second perspective views children as being entirely the same as adults, and the third views children as being similar to adults but as having different (although not necessarily inferior) competencies. The latter perspective has received most support and is the favoured view of the child respondent.