@Macaroon_Berry: The preconditions you posted regarding decision making (capacity/competence) related issues are true (xcpn being the cutoff ages might be given as 14 years old for full emancipation as well as for the mature minor doctrine). And if the post was asking whether the 12 year old girl was gonna make clinical decisions, issues of emancipation wud come into play. Instead the question pertains to methods on how to retrieve clinical history from adolescent patients or have discussions for sensitive issues, nothing to do with making decisions for themselves. The usual practice is to have the mother wait outside to make the adolescent child comfortable to open-up for topics like drug use, or appearance related issues. Let me give u a scenario:
:
-Parents bring their 12-year-old daughter to the doctor. They are worried because the girl refuses to eat breakfast or lunch and has been losing weight over the past 3 months. The girl is 65 inches tall and weighs 110 pounds. Physical examination reveals that the girl is in Tanner Stage 3 and both this examination and laboratory test results are unremarkable. The next step in management is for the physician to:
(A) speak to the parents alone
(B) speak to the girl alone
(C) speak to the girl and the parents
together
(D) recommend a consultation with a specialist
in adolescent eating disorders
(E) reassure the parents that the girl’s
behavior is normal
Hope this helps u to solidify the point.