Children's perspectives and experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic

Children's perspectives and experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic

This project was carried out by Dr Jill Thompson, Senior Lecturer in the Health Sciences School to talk about her work with young children to explore their understandings of the public health messaging that was dominant in the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. To see the journal article linked to this project, see here.

This unprecedented situation left Dr Thompson with questions about how this was impacting on very young children and their lives when there was not any messaging being targeted at them or their parents, to help them navigate the complex, upsetting and challenging circumstances everyone was facing. Dr Thompson needed to adapt to changing circumstances quickly and take the opportunity as it arose, finding ways to utilise her existing knowledge and networks to gather participants, follow university research project procedures and work with the contacts and existing networks she had at hand (in this case her children and her parenting Facebook groups) whist also recognising the limits of this- for example, limited capacity to recruit a diverse participant group.

We also had the opportunity to discuss another recent journal article, titled “Privileges of Power: Authenticity, Representation and the “Problem” of Children’s Voices in Qualitative Health Research”. This paper explored the ways that qualitative research can struggle to represent a range of children’s experiences, and how the way the term ‘voice’ is used in research with young people can lack sufficient critical engagement.

This conversation was really valuable, and I hope that it is beneficial to hear from Dr Thompson and her thoughts surrounding these projects.

Musical Credit: Y'know by Miyamoto. Available here from Soundcloud: https://m.soundcloud.com/miyamoto2k2

References

Thompson, J., Spencer, G., & Curtis, P. (2021). Children's perspectives and experiences of the COVID‐19 pandemic and UK public health measures. Health Expectations : an International Journal of Public Participation in Health Care and Health Policy, 24(6), 2057–2064. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.13350

Spencer, G., Fairbrother, H., & Thompson, J. (2020). Privileges of power: authenticity, representation and the “problem” of children’s voices in qualitative health research. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1609406920958597