Adolescent Reasoning and Adolescent Rights

Abstract

In two recent cases, the United States Supreme Court addressed the authority of public secondary schools to exercise control over student publication in the school newspaper and student meetings on school premises. The Court ruled for substantial school authority with respect to the content of the school newspaper but upheld students’ right of equal access with respect to student meetings. These two decisions reflect inconsistent assumptions about the intellectual competence of adolescents. Moreover, such inconsistencies are common far beyond the American legal context. A more consistent approach would be based on either (a) a rebuttable presumption of adolescent immaturity, or (b) a rebuttable presumption of adolescent maturity. Current psychological evidence is more consistent with the latter presumption. The analysis is extended to (a) the general issue of intellectual freedom in public secondary schools, (b) broader issues of governmental contraints on adolescents, and (c) family issues.

Adolescent Decision Making

“…Some authors maintain that there are no fundamental differences between the decision skills of teens and adults, especially given frequent deficits in adult decision making (e.g., Melton & Russo, 1987;Moshman, 1993). Some authors maintain that there are no fundamental differences between the decision skills of teens and adults, especially given frequent deficits in adult decision making (e.g., Melton & Russo, 1987;Moshman, 1993).…”

The Role of Agent and Social Context in Judgments of Freedom of Speech and Religion

“…It is generally agreed that discussions of children's rights may benefit from assessing children's own perspective (Helwig, 1993;Melton, 1987;Moshman, 1993). However, surprisingly little research exists examining how children judge their own rights and distinguish them from those of adults in different situations.…”

“…One issue especially relevant to the rights of child agents is that of mental competence (Weisstub, 1990). Factors such as mental maturity, ability to exercise informed choice, and developmental differences between children and adults may all influence decisions about when and in what circumstances children should be granted certain rights (Bailey, 1994;Feshbach & Feshbach, 1978;Helwig, 1993;Moshman, 1993). Issues of harm may also play a role in the extension of rights to child agents.…”

“…To the extent that children are seen as psychologically more vulnerable than adults and requiring special protection, restrictions of their freedoms and rights might be permissible. Moshman (1993), for example, has shown how assumptions about the intellectual competence and emotional maturity of adolescents have been instrumental in recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions involving secondary students' freedom of speech and religion. For instance, in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988), the court upheld a decision by a school principal to censor articles concerning divorce and teenage pregnancy from a student-run school newspaper, on the basis that certain material of a sensitive or sexual nature may be unsuitable for immature students and because of a concern that some students may confuse the position of the newspaper with that of school authorities.…”

Adolescents and Their Teenage Brains

“…In the audience was Deanna Kuhn, then editor of this journal, who invited me to send her a manuscript based on my talk for publication in Human Development . The resulting article, 'Adolescent reasoning and adolescent rights' [Moshman, 1993], reviewed psychological research demonstrating that adolescents are distinct from children but not from adults in reasoning and decision making.…”