What Children and Parents Think about Children’s Right to Participation

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed an increase in the global commitment to children’s rights in general and their rights to self-determination and participation in particular. This has been firmly expressed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children, which recognises the right of children to participate in decisions about their own lives. The present study examined perceptions and attitudes regarding the concept of children’s right to participation among children and parents from Israel. The results indicate that children showed a tendency to support the right to participation to a greater extent than the parents. The results also revealed that the attitudes of children and parents varied by the context and situation in which the right to participation is realised (school, family, and public settings). Finally, children’s actual participation was found to be associated with children’s and parents’ attitudes towards children’s right to participation.