The influences of parents on children's expressed views are complex. There is a need to attend to the power relationship between researchers, parents and children. Researchers need to be aware that the presence of parents may stop or help children's views being heard. For some children, the opportunity to express their views without their parents present leads to richer data being given. However, where parents act as proxies for researchers, the parents' understanding of their own children can lead to the collection of rich data. Researchers could explore in future studies the effects of how children and parents are prepared for interviews. Implications for practice/research Parents may help or limit children's contributions. Researchers need to be reflexive and report the effects of adult influences on interviews so that consumers of their research can arrive at informed judgements. In clinical practice, interviewing children separately from their parents whenever possible could provide clinicians with an additional perspective to inform a child-centred approach.

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This article aims to share critical debate around undertaking interviews with children in the home setting and draws on the authors' extensive research fieldwork. The paper focuses on three key processes: planning entry to the child's home, conducting the interviews and exiting the field. In planning entry, we include children's engagement and issues of researcher gender.In conducting the interviews, we consider issues such as the balance of power, the importance of building a rapport, the voluntary nature of consent and the need for a flexible interview structure. Finally, we address exiting from the child's home with sensitivity at the end of the interview and/or research study. Whilst undertaking research in the child's home provides a more known and familiar territory for the child, it does mean that the researcher faces a number of challenges, that require solutions while they are a guest in a child's home.

To evaluate research with children, research reports need to include discussions of how the researchers addressed Mandell's principles and built trust. Data given by children are influenced by how social differences are minimised, the perceived value the researcher places on children's social worlds and how children are engaged in the research process. IMPLICATION FOR PRACTICE/RESEARCH: Further research is required to understand how various approaches to minimising social difference, valuing children's social worlds, joining children in activities and building trust can influence children's participation and the data they give.

Key policies at national and international levels have called for the increased involvement of children in their healthcare. This reflects a growing recognition of the sociology of childhood and of children as social agents. However, it seems that the involvement agenda has met with mixed results, with children often being left marginalized as a result of professional, parental, and other factors. A need for further research into children and health professional's attitude towards child involvement has been identified by research in this area. In this article we review the current literature on children's involvement in care, noting the differences between professional views and those of children themselves. To do this we used a literature review, incorporating electronic database searching and snowballing techniques. We found that children and health professionals are in general agreement that children should be involved in their healthcare; however there is some disagreement over the extent of involvement. Many children experienced exclusion due to many factors including parental role, in that there may be a belief among adults that children cannot act in their own best interest. The involvement of children in their healthcare may be considered transitory and dependent upon competing factors. It may be helpful to view child involvement in healthcare in the context of children's status in their society. Health professionals should aim to empower children with appropriate information about their healthcare.