Accessing the views of children and young people who have experienced physical restraint in school

Abstract

The use of restraint in education settings has led to questions being raised around the impact on the young people, staff and families involved. Following a motion at the Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP) AGM in 2018, research was commissioned by the AEP to explore children and young people’s views of their experiences of restraint. By finding out the views of children and young people, ways of improving the experience of, and minimising the use of, physical restraint can be developed. A systematic literature review was conducted to find and synthesise previous research on the views of children and young people who have experienced physical restraint in school. Following electronic database searches, seven studies met the inclusion criteria, although methodological quality was variable and few studies focussed directly on the views of children and young people about the use of physical restraint. From a preliminary study with professionals with experience of the use of restraint, a data gathering protocol was developed to support research into accessing children and young people’s views about restraint. An empirical study was designed to access the views of children and young people using the data gathering protocol. The effectiveness of the data gathering protocol in gathering the views of one young person who had experienced physical restraint in school was analysed and the protocol was adapted accordingly. The views of the young person about the use of restraint in school, and how these compare to findings from previous research are presented. There is a need for further research into the experiences of children and young people who have been restrained in school. Additional research may also be focussed on the impact on young people who have witnessed restraint. The difficulties inherent in researching the use of restraint in schools, and whether the views of children can be meaningfully considered in isolation from other contextual information are discussed.

Date of Award	31 Dec 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Kevin Woods (Supervisor) & Emma Harding (Supervisor)