Proxy decision making: Case study about mothers

When the decision-making literature is examined, it is seen that the studies mostly focus on individual decision making. In contrast, making decisions on behalf of someone else (by proxy) is a much less studied topic. The proxy decision-making process has different dynamics from the individual decision-making process. In this context, the proxy decision-making process also stands out as an area that needs to be studied. In this research, the stages of the proxy decision-making process and the factors that are effective in this process are tried to be revealed in the context of case study. In this context, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 20 participating mothers who decided to be vegan, unvaccinated, and unschooled. The findings of the research were revealed and interpreted in line with the coding of the interview data, literature and relationship analysis. In this way, the proxy decision-making process; It has been found that it consists of three main stages as preparation and reflection for the decision, making the decision and putting it into practice, and continuing and monitoring the action. The themes that emerged in this process are authority and autonomy, belief, perceived risk, values, information seeking, breaking point, information processing, cognitive adaptation, application and maintenance, verification effort, satisfaction with decision, and social identity formation. In addition, it has been seen that the effects of information sources and social environment are effective at all decision process stages. In line with the results of this research, a decision model regarding the proxy decision making process is presented.