Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism

The edited volume on child protection and the European Court of Human Rights by Dr. Hege Stein Helland, Prof. Marit Skivenes, and Prof. Siri Gloppen has recently received a book review in Child Abuse Review. It was described as an essential reading for those working to advance children's rights.👏

Read the full announcement and get the open-access edition here: https://discretion.w.uib.no/2026/05/08/book-review-child-protection-and-the-european-court-of-human-rights/

DIPA director Prof. Marit Skivenes recently gave a keynote at VIA University College in Aarhus, Denmark.😊

Read more: https://discretion.w.uib.no/2026/05/05/keynote-at-via-university-college-in-aarhus-denmark/

What does autonomy really mean for young people on social media, and does Norway's proposed ban protect it or violate it?📱 In a new blog post, Professor Marit Skivenes argues that the answer depends on how you define autonomy.

Read the full blog post here: https://discretion.w.uib.no/2026/04/30/the-autonomy-question-in-norways-proposed-social-media-ban-for-youth/

What shapes public support for children’s participation?

A new study by Marit Skivenes and Katrin Križ explores how people across the Nordic countries justify children’s right to be heard.

Drawing on more than 5,000 respondents, the study examines ethical, moral, and legal arguments behind support for participation.

Read more here: https://discretion.w.uib.no/2026/04/29/child-centric-populations-a-study-of-nordic-populations-justifications-for-childrens-participation/

We are hiring!🎉 Two PhD positions in political science at the Department of Government, UiB.

1. A 3-year position at the Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism (DIPA), as part of the PROTECT project

2. An open 4-year position at the Department of Government.

For more information, see here: https://discretion.w.uib.no/2026/04/27/two-phd-positions-at-the-department-of-government/ 😊

DIPA researchers recently participated in the European Conference for Social Work Research (ECSWR) in Aberdeen, Scotland🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Professor Marit Skivenes, Dr. Hege Stein Helland and Post-Doc Mathea Loen presented three papers which are part of the on-going CPS-World project.

Read the full news post here: https://discretion.w.uib.no/2026/04/24/dipa-researchers-participated-in-the-2026-european-conference-for-social-work-research-in-aberdeen/

Isabel Fidalgo (PhD candidate, University of Porto) will be presenting "What matters to me: a focused ethnography of children's agency in adoption preparation" in our Law, Politics and Welfare research group on 23 April at 14:15!

Location: Styrerommet, Christies Gate 17
All are welcome!

Isabel is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto (FPCEUP), Portugal. Her doctoral research focuses on children's participation in child protection and adoption-related contexts, with a particular interest in ethical dimensions and comparative perspectives. She is visiting DIPA as an Erasmus exchange visitor.

What shapes adolescents’ trust in the child welfare system? In a new article, Hege Stein Helland examines how institutional contact and perceived performance influence young people’s trust in child welfare services.

The article highlights how trust is shaped by young people’s own experiences with the system, and how perceptions of how well the system performs play a crucial role.

Read about it here: https://discretion.w.uib.no/2026/03/20/adolescents-trust-in-the-child-welfare-system-does-institutional-contact-and-performance-matter/

How should children’s rights be protected when age itself is uncertain? In this blog post, Ingi Iusmen, Associate Professor at the University of Southampton, examines age assessment practices in the UK asylum system.

The post highlights how unreliable age determination methods and a culture of disbelief can result in unaccompanied asylum-seeking children being wrongly classified as adults, with serious consequences for their rights, protection, and wellbeing.

Read the full blog post here: https://discretion.w.uib.no/2026/02/23/whats-in-an-age-childrens-rights-age-assessment-and-immigration-control-in-the-uk/

Join us at Christies gate 17 (2nd floor, Styrerommet/room 17.103) for this Thursday, 22 January (14:15-15:00 CET), as Professor Stefanie Schurer from the University of Sydney will present on “Youth who go missing from care: characteristics and risk profiles”.

Stefanie is a Professor of Economics at the School of Economics, University of Sydney, Australia. Stefanie's research interests are the economics of human development, lifecycle analysis, and econometric methods. Stefanie's recent research examines how public policy affects people's preferences, health, and well-being, focusing on the lens of inequality and paternalistic government policy. Stefanie is visiting DIPA this January as a guest researcher at the Centre.