Peer research by children and young people and their allies Rapid Evidence Review of best practices in health and social science literature

Abstract

The Youth Endowment Fund have set up a network for young people to do peer research about issues related to violence. They asked us to find out about how peer research has happened in the past with children and young people (aged 5-25 years).
So, we met with a group of young researchers, university researchers and adults involved with the YEF network to talk about what peer research is and what questions we should be trying to answer.
This report tells you about the answers we found so far. We built and explored a database of academic articles and reports from the last ten years. We will use this database to answer more questions– so let us know if you want to find out anything else!
What peer research is being done, where it is happening and who is involved?
Peer research involves children or young people taking the lead in some or all of the parts of a research project. It is happening across the world, in communities, schools and other places.
Children and young people, working with adults, find out about health, education and community issues that they are interested in. Peer research about violence and the causes of violence has looked at things like racism, gender violence, bullying, and effects on health.
What sorts of things happen as part of peer research?
Peer research starts when children, young people or adults come up with an idea for something they want to find out about, or an opportunity they want to provide. It involves preparation and planning, connecting with other people, learning about research and the issues, deciding on topics and on different ways of investigating.
Then children and young people, with adults, do things like interviews, group discussions, creative activities or surveys, and usually a combination of these. They explore the topic and analyse what they are finding out.
The new things they have learned are used to plan, take action and are shared. During peer research people take time to think about what is going well and how to deal with any challenges. At the end they sometimes think about what has happened and how well it happened and people share feedback.