Counseling Minors: Ethical and Legal Issues

Ledyard, Pat

doi:10.1002/j.2161-007x.1998.tb00423.x

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…School counselors are expected to secure informed consent from their counselees although minors (under 18) cannot legally give informed consent. Some authors contend that parental rights supercede confidentiality (for reviews, see Hendrix, 1991;Ledyard, 1998), while others argue that students can assent to counseling without parents' consent because counseling can be viewed as part of the school's curriculum, as long as school counselors are treated by the law as teachers (as is also the case in Israel). In a survey of 218 school counselors in Ohio, fewer than 10% declared having received informed consent from parents (Ritchie & Partin, 1990).…”

Section: Conflicting Obligations Related To Minor Clients' Confidentimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three sources of information were used to select the dilemmas included in the study: (a) the most common dilemmas identified by a group of 40 school counselor practitioners for the purposes of this study; (b) a survey carried out by the IASC (2002), which asked for information about the most common dilemmas school counselors face in their work; and (c) the literature on issues in professional ethics (e.g., Achmon, 2004;Davis & Mickelson, 2003;Isaacs & Stone, 2003;Ledyard, 1998;Remley, Hermann, & Huey, 2003;Weil, 2004).…”

Section: Instrumentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Maintaining Confidentiality with Minors: Dilemmas of School Counselors

Lazovsky

2008

Professional School Counseling

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This article examined the attitudes of 195 school counselors in Israel regarding (a) the decision to maintain or breach confidentiality in a variety of ethical dilemmas, and (b) the reasons given for justifying their decisions. Eighteen ethical dilemmas in three domains were presented to respondents in a questionnaire. School counselors were most willing to breach confidentiality regarding dilemmas in the domain of dangerous behaviors or situations, less willing in the domain of unlawful behaviors, and least willing in the domain of personal and family information. Ethical reasons, legal and procedural reasons, and professional-personal priorities of counselors were the three types of reasons used by counselors, although they varied in the use of each type of reason according to their decision and the domain of the dilemmas.

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Section: Conflicting Obligations Related To Minor Clients' Confidentimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Instrumentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maintaining Confidentiality with Minors: Dilemmas of School Counselors

Lazovsky

2008

Professional School Counseling

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“…Knowing this, school counselors must consider both their obligation to keep parents informed about their children and the possibility of betraying students' trust if they breach confidentiality. A considerable amount of literature has been written focusing on the legal and ethical responsibilities of school counselors when it comes to responding to the demands of parents/guardians (Davis & Mickelson, 1994;Glosoff & Pate;Isaacs & Stone, 1999;Ledyard, 1998;Mitchell et al, 2002). Generally, if parents request information about a counseling session with their child, a school counselor is expected to provide some type of information in response.…”

Section: Confidentiality and Minorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…School counselors are expected to respect their clients' right to privacy, but their clients most often are minors, and parents may be included in the counseling relationship (Ledyard, 1998). Isaacs and Stone (1999) described confidentiality as "the most difficult ethical issue facing school counselors" (p. 258).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Student Risk-Taking Behaviors: When Do School Counselors Break Confidentiality?

Moyer

Sullivan

2008

Professional School Counseling

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A total of 204 middle and high school counselors from across the United States responded to a survey in which they were asked to determine whether they view specific adolescent risk-taking behaviors of varying intensity, frequency, and duration as warranting parental notification. Results suggest that counselors' perceptions that it is ethical to break confidentiality and report the risk-taking behaviors increased when the behaviors were more intense, more frequent, and of longer duration. Further, although there was less ambiguity regarding the perceived dangerousness of some behaviors (e.g., suicidal ideation), all behaviors showed some variance or disagreement among respondents with regard to their willingness to break confidentiality. Implications and suggestions for school counselors are considered.

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“…Despite the level of international consistency regarding guidance about confidentiality in psychological practice, it has been argued that the application of these seemingly simple recommendations is in fact highly complex (Davis & Mickelson, 1994;Gustafson & McNamara, 1987;Isaacs & Stone, 1999;Kaczmarek, 2000;Ledyard, 1998;Myers, 1982;Taylor & Adelman, 1989) and not well understood by practitioners (Fisher, 2008;Haas et al, 1986;Pope & Vetter, 1992;Younggren & Harris, 2008). Davidson (1995) in his review of articles concerning confidentiality in psychological practice, explained that disagreement exists in the field of psychology about what constitutes harm and who should be protected.…”

Section: The Ethical Complexity Surrounding Confidentialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Adolescents, Risk Behaviour and Confidentiality: When Would Australian Psychologists Breach Confidentiality to Disclose Information to Parents?

Duncan

Williams

Knowles

2013

Australian Psychologist

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The protection of confidentiality in psychological practice is vital. However, confidentiality is not absolute and psychologists are permitted to breach confidentiality under particular circumstances. Ethical challenges surrounding confidentiality are complex with adolescent clients, as assessments often consider the risk that adolescents pose to themselves in addition to the risk posed to others. The current study documented situations in which Australian psychologists would breach adolescents' confidentiality to disclose information about risk behaviour to parents, with a focus on situations where adolescents posed a risk to themselves as opposed to other people putting adolescents at risk. A total of 264 Australian psychologists were surveyed online. They were each presented with 68 variations of a vignette about a 15-year-old boy who was engaged in risk behaviour and were asked whether they would breach confidentiality in each case. The vignettes covered six behavioural domains (smoking, sexual behaviour, drinking, drug use, suicide, stealing) and varied in behaviour intensity, frequency and duration. Consensus was reached about breaching confidentiality in 16% of cases (related to sexual behaviour, drug use, and suicide). Consensus was reached about not breaching confidentiality in 41% of cases (relating to smoking, sexual behaviour, drug use, suicide, and stealing). In the remaining 43% of cases, significant disagreement occurred (relating to all six behavioural domains). The findings suggest a high degree of variation in opinion about confidentiality with adolescents, emphasising the importance of transparent communication and informed consent. The findings also raise questions about how important consistency of psychological practice is across Australia.

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Counseling Minors: Ethical and Legal Issues

Cited by 13 publications

References 6 publications

Maintaining Confidentiality with Minors: Dilemmas of School Counselors

Maintaining Confidentiality with Minors: Dilemmas of School Counselors

Student Risk-Taking Behaviors: When Do School Counselors Break Confidentiality?

Adolescents, Risk Behaviour and Confidentiality: When Would Australian Psychologists Breach Confidentiality to Disclose Information to Parents?

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