Getting past the gatekeeper: Cultural competence, field access and researching gender-based violence – evidence from four countries

Increasingly researchers are recognising the importance of including the perspectives of children and young people in research and in the development of interventions and innovations, in order to understand their lives on their own terms. However, due to potential risks posed to children and young people in research, gatekeepers have an increasingly important role in play in granting access and in direct field activities, especially where the research could be deemed as ‘sensitive’. This article reflects on the access and field experiences of a team of international researchers in four countries – Uganda, United Kingdom, Jamaica and India – researching Gender-Based Violence (GBV). Thematic analysis and QSR Nvivo were used to analyse data from this qualitative study which combined descriptive research with autoethnography. The reflective findings suggest that researching sensitive topics with children and young people is necessarily problematic in order to safeguard them, but that gatekeepers and gatekeeping can potentially undermine important research.