Minors' consent to treatment: A developmental perspective.
Abstract
Discusses the cognitive and behavioral characteristics of minors in relation to the question of competence to consent to treatment. The legal standard (knowing, intelligent, and voluntary) used to judge the effectiveness of consent is translated into psychological concepts, especially cognitive abilities. A review of developmental psychological research is presented, which examines these concepts as they relate to minors' abilities to satisfy the legal standard. It is suggested that cognitive developmental stages associated with ages below 11–23 yrs might exclude such minors from meaningful consent. In addition to cognitive considerations, certain results suggest that the tendency toward deference in early adolescence is so normative that capacity for voluntary consent is questionable through age 14, but existing evidence provides no psychological grounds for maintaining the general legal assumption that minors at age 15 and above cannot provide competent consent. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
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Children may be more obedient to parents and healthcare professionals because of their need for approval or fear of rebuke from authority figures.
“Children may be more obedient to parents and healthcare professionals because of their need for approval or fear of rebuke from authority figures [6, 9, 14, 21].”
From Why is it hard to make progress in assessing children's decision-making competence? (2015) · cites this paper as [9]
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- Authors
- Grisso, T., & Vierling, L.
- Affiliations
- Saint Louis University (US)
- ORCID
- Grisso, Thomas
- Venue
- Professional Psychology
- Published
- 1978
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 412-427
- ISSN
- 0033-0175 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2063357276
- Cited by
- 220
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 5.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Professional Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network (American Medical Association) (submittedVersion)
- DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Healthcare Decision-Making and Restraints
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics and bioethics in healthcare
- Keywords
- informed consent, capacity to consent, cognitive development, developmental stages, voluntary consent, legal capacity, early adolescence, deference
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Child, Delivery of Health Care, Humans, Human Development, Informed Consent, Mental Competency
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