title: Health professionals' predictions of teenagers' preferences regarding chaperones during physical examinations.
abstract: This study assessed the degree of concurrence between teenagers' stated preferences regarding chaperones and professionals' predictions about teenagers' responses. One hundred and fifty members of the Society for Adolescent Medicine received the Method section of a study investigating teenagers' attitudes about chaperones during examination of the genitalia. These professionals were asked to predict the teenagers' choices. Seventy professionals responded. Male and female professionals made highly similar predictions. Professionals' predictions were generally accurate, with four exceptions. Professionals underestimated some teenagers' desire to have a family member present (the case for females aged 14-16 yr and males 12-13 yr). They also underestimated young boys' and girls' reluctance to have an opposite-sexed nurse present. Regarding teenagers' reluctance to be alone with the physician, professionals did not appreciate the differential importance of age for males versus females. They also underestimated, for females and young males, the additive importance of the physician's sex and familiarity to the patient.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010379:Peer Group; D010808:Physical Examination; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires