Biomedical Decision-Making with Adolescent Patients

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This research investigates the decision-making frameworks used in adolescent medicine in order to contribute to theories of personhood, adolescence, and biomedical care. Decision-making in adolescent medicine is particularly complex, as adolescent patients often seek to make their own decisions while remaining enmeshed in family contexts. While biomedical frameworks for adults emphasize patient autonomy, adolescents are not yet considered full social or legal persons. This project has the potential to contribute to scientific theories of the meanings and values of care and kinship that inform frameworks of biomedical decision-making, specifically for non-adult patient populations. In addition to supporting a doctoral student’s training, study results will be disseminated widely to academic and non-academic audiences, including clinicians and families.Specifically, this project aims to investigate: 1) What meanings and values do clinicians, adolescent patients, and families use to develop decision-making frameworks? 2) How is decision-making managed in practice in adolescent medicine, particularly among different social groups? 3) What are the implications of these decision-making frameworks for adolescent personhood and kin relations in biomedical contexts? Data will be collected through ethnographic observations in adolescent medicine clinics and in-depth interviews with clinicians, adolescents, and family members. The results aim to contribute to scientific understandings of adolescent personhood and forms of biomedical and familial care.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.