Participatory research with young people has become an approach increasingly adopted by researchers within PE and sport. In this paper, we draw on our research diaries to collectively reflect on our experiences of attempting to work in participatory ways. Although we each work with different young people and have adopted differing participatory approaches, there are similarities in our research experiences. This includes recurring accounts of ‘muddling through’ and messiness occupying our reflections. We are also struck by the absence of concern within the literature to reveal the messiness of research. In light of our shared musings about participatory research with different young people, this paper offers some preliminary thoughts about our experiences of dealing with this messiness. We take as our focus the increasing concerns to support rights-based research that advocates inclusion, participation and empowerment, and draw on our research to explore how these features were worked towards. In these discussions we are open about the limitations of the research, challenges encountered and the resultant messiness arising. Our conclusion turns to what it might mean if researchers were more transparent about the usually unpredictable, messy and confusing situations that arise in the practice of doing participatory research with young people.

与年轻人的参与性研究已成为体育和运动领域研究人员越来越多地采用的方法。在本文中，我们利用研究日记来集体反思我们尝试以参与方式工作的经历。尽管我们每个人都与不同的年轻人一起工作，并采用了不同的参与方式，但我们的研究经验却有相似之处。这包括反复出现的“混帐”和凌乱占据我们思考的情况。文献中缺乏关注以揭示研究的混乱也使我们震惊。鉴于我们与不同年轻人分享参与研究的想法，本文对我们处理这种混乱情况的经验提供了一些初步的想法。我们将越来越多的关注作为焦点，以支持倡导包容性，参与性和赋权的基于权利的研究，并利用我们的研究来探索如何实现这些功能。在这些讨论中，我们对研究的局限性，遇到的挑战以及由此产生的混乱情况持开放态度。如果研究人员对与年轻人进行参与式研究的过程中通常无法预测，混乱且令人困惑的情况更加透明，那么我们的结论就可能意味着什么。