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Overcoming barriers to adolescent research on pubertal and reproductive development

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Abstract

Perhaps the greatest barriers to conducting adolescent research on pubertal and reproductive behavior involve obtaining permission from schools and parents to conduct the study in the first place. This article addresses these barriers, focusing on (a) possible reasons why such research has languished, with a focus on the discomfort of adults and on negative societal messages; (b) design of reproductively oriented adolescent studies; (c) strategies for recruiting schools and families; (d) procedures for testing in the schools; and (e) methodological considerations of such barriers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Educational Testing Service, 08541, Princeton, NJ

    Jeanne Brooks-Gunn

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  1. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
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This article was prepared while the author was a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. The foundation's support and the generous assistance of the National Institutes of Health (NICHD), and the W. T. Grant Foundation, are appreciated.

Received PLD from University of Pennsylvania. Research interests are girl's psychological adaptation to pubertal change, biosocial aspects of female reproductive events, development of biological and socially at risk children and adolescents.

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Brooks-Gunn, J. Overcoming barriers to adolescent research on pubertal and reproductive development. J Youth Adolescence 19, 425–440 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01537472

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