In keeping with developments in children's rights, research is increasingly including the views of children. Accessing a hard to reach population of children can, however, raise significant ethical and methodological challenges for researchers. Negotiating access through gatekeepers, securing parental consent and limits on confidentiality are central issues in the recruitment process of children. This paper is based on a qualitative study of young carers in the Irish population. It outlines the methodological approaches employed to access a representative sample of young carers and the measures taken to fulfil ethical obligations. In the recruitment phase of the study, researchers attempted to strike a balance between two sometimes competing requirements, the need to protect children from harm and to respect children's competence. This paper reflects on the success and limitations of the approaches adopted towards achieving this balance, exploring the use of gatekeepers as a method to identify and recruit a hidden population, and revisiting the measures taken to comply with the ethical requirements of parental consent and limits on confidentiality.

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This paper investigates whether children's academic self-beliefs are associated with reading achievement and whether the relationship is modified by gender and/or age. Data were collected from children at risk of reading failure, that is, emergent readers (6-to 8-year-olds) in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas reading at a level below the population mean. The authors' own measure of attitude to reading and perceived competence was used. The study found a significant positive association between attitude to reading in class and vocabulary and phonemic awareness and a significant negative association between perceived competence at reading in class and single-word reading and spelling. Girls' attitude to reading and perceived competence were more positively associated with reading achievement, and this was most evident in the first grade. Perceived competence was inflated among those with the poorest reading and also among boys, in association with reading-related skills found most challenging by children in this sample.Children's academic self-beliefs can be significantly associated with reading achievement, as various studies have shown

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There is an increased interest in the promotion of volunteering within nonprofit organisations. In this paper organisational supports for recruiting and managing volunteering amongst older adults are explored. The paper describes an intervention comprising an intergenerational reading programme delivered by volunteers in eight schools in the Republic of Ireland. The research draws on qualitative data from a mixed methods research project (2009-2011) which evaluated outcome and process aspects of the reading programme. The qualitative data was collected from a group of older volunteers aged 55+ years. This present study frames the empirical findings within a volunteering framework which involved deductively analysing the data using attributes associated with 'volunteerability' and 'recruitability'. Through this analytical framework a number of features were identified as contributing to greater knowledge of marketing strategies to recruit and retain volunteers within nonprofit organsiations. The paper concludes with a set of core practice messages for organisations which rely on volunteers in the delivery of their service.