Making a case for engaging adolescents in program decision-making

The study discussed here examined the degree to which adolescents believe they are involved in community decision-making and examined discrepancies between adult and adolescent perceptions of common youth problems. Perceptual data were compared to adolescents' self-reported behavioral data to determine if perceptions diverge from reports of actual behaviors. Results indicate that many adolescents do not believe that their thoughts are considered valuable by decision-makers. However, differences in perceptions among adults and youth suggest that adolescent perceptions should be considered. Specifically, adults were particularly aware of adolescent behaviors with observable consequences, but adolescents were more aware of internal psychological problems.