A new article by Jazmín Mazó, Camila Jiménez-Sánchez, Gerrit Loots, and Marcela Losantos has been published in Behavioral Sciences as part of the Special Issue Action Research, Methods and Measures in Community Psychology-2nd Edition. Entitled “A Critical Review of Children in Rural Latin America: Toward Meaningful Engagement in Complex Research Contexts,” the article critically examines how participatory research with children and adolescents is being implemented across rural Latin America.
The study reviews sixteen empirical investigations conducted between 2018 and 2025 in countries including Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Chile, and Brazil. While methodologies such as Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and Participatory Action Research (PAR) are increasingly used in research involving children, the review found that participation frequently remains uneven across research phases.
The findings indicate that children are more commonly involved during implementation and dissemination activities, while decision-making authority during agenda-setting, research design, and analysis often remains concentrated among adults. The article argues that the visibility of children within participatory processes does not necessarily translate into shared authority or meaningful influence over research trajectories.
A central contribution of the article is the identification of three interconnected dimensions that shape children’s participation in rural contexts.
The first dimension refers to structural–methodological conditions, including institutional research norms, pre-defined methodological structures, territorial inequalities, and the limited consideration of sociodemographic intersections. The review found that many studies adopted participatory language while maintaining adult-led research structures that restricted children’s influence over core research decisions.
The second dimension concerns relational–community dynamics, particularly the role of intergenerational hierarchies, cultural norms, institutional actors, and community power relations. In rural and Indigenous contexts, participation was often mediated by adults such as teachers, community leaders, or researchers, shaping how children could engage throughout the research process.
The third dimension focuses on experiential–child engagement, highlighting how children’s participation shifts across different research phases depending on their opportunities to exercise agency, influence discussions, and recognize themselves as active contributors to knowledge production. The study emphasizes that participation cannot be understood only through visible involvement in activities, but also through children’s capacity to shape meanings, relationships, and decisions within the research process.
The article argues that meaningful participation requires addressing these three dimensions simultaneously. Rather than understanding participation as simple inclusion within research activities, the study emphasizes the importance of creating conditions that allow children to influence research trajectories in ways that resonate with their lived realities and diverse social positions within rural territories.
You can read the full article here:
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/16/5/773
Citation: Mazó, J., Jiménez-Sánchez, C., Loots, G., & Losantos, M. (2026). A Critical Review of Children in Rural Latin America: Toward Meaningful Engagement in Complex Research Contexts. Behavioral Sciences, 16(5), 773. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16050773
