Why Listening to Children and Young People is Important in Family Justice

Date01 July 2019
Published date01 July 2019
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12417
HEARING THE VOICES OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN
FAMILY JUSTICE
WHY LISTENING TO CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IS
IMPORTANT IN FAMILY JUSTICE
Janet Walker and Gabriela Misca
During the last 30 years, there has been a growing body of evidence indicating that children and young people often feel
marginalized when their parents are making critical decisions that will shape their young lives, and they are calling for family
justice professionals to hear their voices. This article explores the research evidence, examines the relevant theories about
child development, and demonstrates how a focus on age-related competency fails to take account of childrens subjective
meanings about their lives. The authors consider a model of participation rst designed to understand adult participation in
government and show howthis can be usefully applied to understanding childrens participation in family justice.
Key Points for the Family Court Community:
Children and young people often feel marginalized in family law proceedings when their parents are making deci-
sions about their future.
Protectionist approaches by family law professionals can suppress the viewsof children and young people in the mis-
guided belief that they are protecting them from the negative impacts of parental conict.
Applying the ladder of citizen participationto childrens participation in family justice is a useful way of helping
different professionals to reconsider their approaches to working with young people.
A child-inclusive approach has been shown to improve childrens outcomes when their parents separate.
Keywords: Child Development; Child-Inclusive Mediation; Children and Decision Making; Children and Young People;
Childrens Rights; Condentiality in Mediation; Hearing Childrens Voices.
Much has been written about why a child-centered approach to family justice is important
(e.g., see Barton & Pugsley, 2014; Parkinson, 2012; Walker, 2013).
12
Research (e.g., see research
undertaken in England by Walker et al., 2004; Walker, McCarthy, Coombes, Richards, & Bridge,
2007) has demonstrated very clearly that when parents separate, their children experience a range
of changes that have a direct impact on their lives and well-being. Parents are required to make
decisions about where the children will live and how they will maintain a relationship with both
parents. The decisions taken might mean a change of home, a change of school, and a regime
in which they move between the homes of both parents on a regular basis. Moreover, they may
nd themselves living with step-parents and step-siblings. These changes can be very traumatic
for children and young people, especially if they lose touch with close friends. Yet until
recently, children and young people in many jurisdictions have rarely been given an opportunity
to express their views about the decisions made on their behalf. As a result, they can become
unhappy and marginalized and struggle to settle in new environments. Furthermore, if the par-
ents are in conict about the arrangements, the children nd themselves in the middle of what
can often be described as a war zone.
In 1989, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) set out in detail
what every child needs for a safe, happy, and fullled childhood. Article 12 includes the assurance
Correspondence: profjanw@yahoo.co.uk; g.misca@worc.ac.uk
FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 57 No. 3, July 2019 375386
© 2019 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts

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