Can the first pregnancy of a young adolescent be prevented? A question which must be answered

The title of this paper is a question, and the text of the paper presents some issues and ideas which are the sources of the question. Included are notions from the literature on adolescent cognitive development and their relation with the notion of "prevention". It is argued that the notion of prevention is taken for granted in professional thinking about adolescent pregnancy and that a fuller understanding of this idea in the context of adolescent cognitive development could have clear consequences for research action.