BOCYF Projects

Adolescent Decision Making: Implications for Prevention Programs

Publications: Adolescent Decision Making: Implications for Prevention Programs: Summary of a Workshop (1999)

Risk taking is a natural part of teenagers' lives. They need to take some risks in order to grow, trying new activities, generating new ideas, experimenting with new roles. However, they can also get into trouble with their risk taking when it involves behaviors such as sex, drinking, smoking, violence, and drug use. Concern over such "risk behaviors" has led to the creation of many interventions, based to varying degrees on the growing scientific literature on adolescent development. Some of these interventions have attempted to manipulate teenagers' beliefs, values, and behaviors, hoping to get them to act more cautiously. Other interventions have attempted to improve their ability to make sensible decisions, hoping to get them to make wise choices on their own. Having general decision-making skills might enable teenagers to protect themselves in many situations.

In this context and at the request of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families and its Forum on Adolescence convened a workshop on adolescent decision making. The workshop was held on January 6 and 7, 1998, to examine what is known about adolescents' decision-making skills and the implications of that knowledge for programs to further their healthy development.

The workshop was designed to pull together the diverse perspectives that researchers and practitioners have adopted, when looking at adolescent decision making. In order to provide a common frame of reference, the workshop used a decision-theory perspective as an organizing device. The many distinguished presenters described their evidence in terms of teenagers' ability to make effective decisions. Some presenters focused on decision making as a cognitive process. Others considered social, affective, and institutional barriers to sound decision making. Still others dealt with concurrent individual and cultural changes that affect teenagers' ability to act in their own best interests.

The ensuing discussions revealed the need to integrate these different perspectives as a necessary step to helping teenagers to deal with the many difficult choices that they face. A summary report, Adolescent Decision Making: Implications for Prevention Programs: Summary of a Workshop, was released in May 1999.