Ethical considerations in longitudinal studies of human infants

Ethical issues and their optimal solutions in longitudinal infant studies have not received adequate attention in the literature. To address this gap, this manuscript pulls from universal research ethics, ethical guidelines for infant and child research, and ethical guidelines for longitudinal research and combines them in the context of infant longitudinal research with typically-developing infants. Topics explored relate to participant consent to research studies, the participant-observer relationship, and closure of developmental studies in this targeted population. Additionally, this manuscript highlights the importance and need for new and more relevant considerations of ethical procedures that concern infants involved in longitudinal research.