Citation

Resnick MD, Litman TJ, Blum RW. J. Adolesc. Health 1992; 13(7): 616-622.

Affiliation

Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1420217

Abstract

The provision of confidential medical services to adolescents is an enduring health policy issue in the United States, and the focus of policy statements by several professional medical organizations. Physician attitudes toward confidential service provision to teenagers were examined in the Upper Midwest Regional Physician Survey, a representative sample of community-based pediatricians and family physicians. Overall, three-quarters of participants favored confidential service provision for youths. Multivariate analysis revealed that the most salient reasons for favoring confidentiality were perception of unique needs among adolescents, year of licensure, high self-assessed competency in addressing sexual concerns of adolescence, adequacy of training in interpersonal and sexual issues, frequency of addressing interpersonal issues, and lower self-assessed adequacy of training in traditional medical problems of youths. Implications for state and federal legislation are discussed.

Language: en