The ethical obligations of research with vulnerable young people who have dependent children

In their 2014 article, Mendes, Snow, and Baidawi explored the ethical challenges of conducting research with young people who have been in out-of-home care. The heightened vulnerability of care leavers presents researchers with major ethical complexities, with little research to assist them. These complexities are magnified when care leavers are parents, and responsible for the care and protection of their own very young children. Although we commend Mendes and his colleagues for examining these issues, we are concerned that their paper focuses on why researchers should not report suspicions of child abuse and neglect, or violent crime, yet provides virtually no reasons why they must. Our response to their paper provides the legal, ethical and moral imperatives for researchers to report suspicions of child abuse and neglect.