Gordon, Courtney P. (1996, Fall). Adolescent decision making: A broadly based theory and its application to the prevention of early pregnancy. Adolescence, 31(123), 561-584.
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Author's Abstract: COPYRIGHT 1996 Libra Publishers Inc.
The purpose of this paper is to present a broadly based theory of adolescent decision making including all the necessary components of the subject: cognitive development, social and psychological factors, and, perhaps most importantly, cultural and societal influences. Previous theories and applications have often focused on only one or two aspects. This theory is then applied to the problem of prevention of early pregnancy at an inner-city high school. Use of this theory, combined with an open-ended data-gathering format made possible some of the unexpected findings of this study: most of the young women at this school desire their pregnancies; many of them prefer single parenthood to traditional family structure; and low academic skills and poverty often result in pregnancy, rather than pregnancy causing high school dropouts and a life of poverty. Prevention programs will necessarily differ for sexually active adolescents who do and do not want pregnancy and for younger versus older adolescents. In designing such programs, we need to focus on pregnancy as the problem rather than on adolescent sexuality.
Full Text COPYRIGHT 1996 Libra Publishers Inc.
The importance of understanding how adolescents make decisions lies in the challenging and difficult problems they face today. For example, unlike their predecessors, some of their decisions may result in being infected with AIDS. If we as adults are to guide adolescents in making decisions, we need to know what information they possess, what information they choose to use, and their cognitive ability.
Many studies of adolescent decision making consider one aspect of the subject
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