Studying Children's Perspectives on Self‐Determination and Nurturance Rights: Issues and Challenges

Abstract

Over the past three decades there has been a growing interest in children's and adolescents' rights and the tendency to grant young people many of the rights traditionally reserved for adult members of society. Increased awareness of children's rights is clearly reflected in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC; United Nations, 1989), which recognizes children as worthy of citizenship and attempts to increase the commitment of nations worldwide to children's rights. If children's rights are to serve their intended function—to protect children from harm and promote their development and well‐being—it is essential to examine how children understand and think about their rights. In this article we review the literature on children's and adults' thinking about children's rights and discuss conceptual and methodological considerations related to this body of research, including the importance of how we conceptualize the construct of children's rights, the types of questions researchers pose about young people's attitudes, knowledge and reasoning regarding children's rights, and the methods used to answer these questions. We address the implications of developmental research on young people's perspectives on children's rights.