兒童虐待之研究倫理議題

The Ethical Issues in Research on Child Abuse

兒童虐待是具敏感性的研究議題。在規劃研究以提升該群體之健康，以及保護個案權益與避免傷害之間取得平衡，是一重要且待辯證的研究倫理議題。兒童虐待的研究倫理考量，可分為研究對象為兒童，以及執行研究時可能會影響受虐個案身心狀態兩面向來探討。本文以研究流程為脈絡探討研究倫理議題，始於形成研究問題、選擇研究對象，到資料搜集與研究結果呈現，逐步剖析如何維護受虐兒童或有兒時受虐經驗之成人的知情同意和自主權，確保資料搜集過程個案能有控制與安全感，以及研究者如何看待通報的角色責任等議題。身為研究者，透過規劃嚴謹的研究步驟和充分的自我準備以降低個案參與研究的風險極為重要。本文可作為研究者及倫理審查機構審視與考量研究倫理敏感議題之參考。

Child abuse is a sensitive research topic. Improving the health of the victims of abuse through research, rights protection, and preemption of harm are important and debatable ethical issues. The ethical considerations related to research into child abuse cover two dimensions: 1) using children as subjects and 2) concerns regarding the physical and mental health of children who are targeted by related research. This paper focuses on several common ethical issues in the field of child abuse research, starting from the formulation of the research problem, sampling, data collection, and results reporting. Ethical issues include obtaining informed consent, assuring the autonomy of maltreated children and adults with childhood abuse histories, ensuring a sense of control and safety during data collection, and establishing the role of researchers as mandated reporters. As a researcher, rigorous research design and methodology and self-preparation on the issue of childhood trauma and abuse are essential in order to reduce the risk of harm to victims. This paper is intended to provide suggestions for researchers and institutional review board committees to assess the ethics of conducting research on sensitive issues.