Researching with care-experienced young people in sport and physical activity: methodological reflections and the need for a trauma-aware lens

Care-experienced youth include those children and young people who have – at some point in their lives – spent time under the care of the state. They are, arguably, one of the most vulnerable and marginalised youth populations, likely to have experienced a range of adverse experiences during childhood. Such adverse experiences can lead to trauma. Drawing on research from our Right to be Active (R2BA) project, which utilised several participatory methods including character creation and comic strips, this chapter explores who careexperienced youth are, how and why they might experience trauma, and how we might effectively shape research with these young people using the five principles for trauma-aware pedagogies. Reflecting on our research, we propose that these principles can be used to guide researchers working with trauma-affected youth populations.