Abstract
Programs for widespread dissemination of birth control information and devices among adolescents are subject to strong resistance from many groups and may be ineffective anyway. An alternative approach to reducing the alarming frequency of unplanned pregnancy among unmarried adolescents might be group or individual counseling for those most susceptible, to unplanned pregnancies. Accurate identification would be necessary to implement this alternative. Developed in this paper is an inferential strategy for identifying in well-defined groups unmarried adolescents who seem “susceptible.” When carefully evaluated, an inferential strategy, based, on several concepts from Bayesian inference theory, appears remarkably accurate as a means of identification. Besides specific predic
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Received her M. A. in education and Ph.D. in psychology at University of Houston. Main interest was adult development. Deceased in 1971.
Received his M.D. from Baylor Pediatric internship and residency at University of Michigan Hospital. Main interest is adult development.
Received his Ph.D. in psychology at Ohio State University. Main interest is probability (decision) theory.
Received her Ph.D. in educational psychology at University of Texas in Austin. Main interest is adult development.
Received from M.D. Johns Hopkins, School of Medicine. Main interest is obstetrics and gynecology.
Received her M.A. in English at Southern Methodist University. Main interest is research communications.
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Goldfarb, J.L., Mumford, D.M., Schum, D.A. et al. An attempt to detect “pregnancy susceptibility” in indigent adolescent girls. J Youth Adolescence 6, 127–144 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02139080
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02139080