Adolescents' capacities to provide voluntary informed consent - The effects of parental influence and medical dilemmas

Abstract

Minors' capacities to provide a valid informed consent for the treatment of medical and psychological disorders are contingent in part on the determination of whether they can make voluntary treatment decisions. The gravity of a medical dilemma and the nature of parental influence are two factors hypothesized to effect and perhaps compromise the voluntariness of treatment decisions made by adolescents. In the present study 40 14- and 15-year-old subjects were asked to note their conviction for treatment decisions they had made in response to hypothetical medical dilemmas in which parental influence varied. It was found that adolescents making treatment decisions are generally deferent to parental influence, although they are more likely to resist parental influence when the consequences of the decision have serious implications for the hypothetical adolescent's health. © 1988 Plenum Publishing Corporation.