Research in developmental psychology imposes challenges and particular ethical dilemmas for researchers, especially when children and adolescents are concerned. The present study aims to present and discuss some of those ethical issues such as obtaining the informed consent, the participants' referral to treatment and the evaluations, the use of instruments that were not validated, dilemmas regarding adolescents' sexuality and health, and ethical issues concerning carrying out case studies. The questions and reflections proposed were based, essentially, on the authors' research practice, largely backed by the Brazilian legislation and by the literature on research ethics with human beings and on Psychology research. However, several gaps were observed in the literature on the theme, that indicate the need for further debate on research ethics in developmental psychology.
Ethics; Developmental psychology; Children; Adolescents