Including Youth Perspectives in Decisions Affecting Their Lives

Countless decisions are made over the course of a child's life that will impact their physical and mental health, happiness, and educational and future professional attainment. Some of these decisions are pivotal and may have immediate implications for a child's well-being, such as decisions about pursuing medical treatment or about custody arrangements following contentious parental divorce. According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have the right to participate in such life-altering decisions. However, what that involvement looks like at different periods of development, what the implications of involvement are for children's well-being, and whether children's involvement ultimately improves or impedes decision-making on behalf of the child, have long been subjects of debate across divided bodies of literature (e.g., involvement in medical decisions versus legal decisions). In this paper, we provide an overview of the literature on children's involvement in major life decisions including existing policies, highlight common themes such as capabilities required for successful involvement, identify potential pros and cons of involving children, and end by recommending evidence-based practices for involving children across different ages and capacities.