ArticleJAMA health forum2026
History of Minor Consent Laws for Mental Health Treatment in the US.
Article in JAMA health forum, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Use of Waivers of Guardian Permission in the United States for Pediatric Digital Health Intervention Research Since 2020: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Importance: To facilitate access to mental health treatment for minors who are unwilling to involve parents or guardians in their care, states have enacted statutes granting minors the legal capacity to independently consent (ie, without parental/guardian consent) to mental health services. Understanding changes in these laws over time may facilitate research that assesses whether these laws increase access to care, and support legal and clinical interventions to advance minors' access to mental health care. Objective: To analyze the adoption and amendment of minor consent laws for mental health services in all 50 states and Washington, DC, from 1950 to 2024 while focusing on the capacity of minors to independently consent and the confidentiality protections that apply to the mental health information of independently consenting minors. Design and Setting: This study used legal epidemiological methods to code state statutes, state regulations, and relevant case law regulating the legal capacity of minors in all 50 US states and Washington, DC, from 1950 to 2024 to consent independently to (1) general health care (inclusive of mental health care), (2) outpatient talk therapy, (3) mental health medications, and (4) residential treatment. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcome was the youngest age of capacity to consent to general health care, outpatient therapy, mental health medications, and residential treatment, respectively, as well as confidentiality protections that prohibit, enable, or require disclosure of minors' mental health treatment information to parents or guardians. Results: From the 1950s to 2019, there was steady growth in the number of states that allowed minors to consent independently to mental health treatment, with outpatient therapy being the most common. In 2024, for the first time since states started allowing minor consent, multiple states revoked the capacity for minors to consent independently to mental health treatment. Few laws protect minors' mental health treatment records against disclosure to their parents or guardians. Conclusions and Relevance: The results of this study suggest that research that assesses the effect of these laws (and their revocation) on clinical practice, access to care, and mental health outcomes for minors is needed to inform practice and policies that increase access to mental health care for minors in the US.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.