The United States has the highest unintended pregnancy rate relative to other Western countries (Division of Reproductive Health, 2002). Mothers and children of unintended births face increased risk of substantial physical and social problems (Brown & Eisenberg, 1995; Gold, 2001). The high unintended pregnancy rate in the U.S. is primarily due to the lack of consistent contraceptive use by many individuals who are at risk for unintended pregnancy (Piccinino & Mosher, 1998). Due in part to the NASW position on family planning, social workers are in a key position for providing family planning information to clients.
This study investigates the barriers that social workers face in providing family planning information to their clients through the use of a survey questionnaire. The questionnaire includes a modified version of the Bardis Religion Scale (1961), and items related to Banduras social cognitive theory (1986) with a focus on family planning knowledge, comfort, self-efficacy, perceived social worker roles, and moral attitudes toward providing information on family planning to clients. A section for respondent characteristics was also included.
A sample of 800 respondents, with a final sample of 203 respondents, was randomly selected and surveyed from the 2007 roster of Pennsylvania licensed social workers. Findings revealed that greater religiosity, conservative political beliefs, a tendency to vote for Republicans, and a pro-life abortion stance were associated with reported increased barriers in providing family planning information. Participation in family planning coursework or training, and practicing in an urban area were found to be related to lower reported barriers, regardless of religiosity. Years of experience and work function had no significant effect on providing family planning information. Moral objection ranked low as compared to other barriers. Lack of workplace incentive and issues related to lack of family planning training and knowledge were of greater importance in understanding barriers. Furthermore, many social workers lack accurate family planning information, especially related to emergency contraception. These results suggest need for family planning training within social work professional education and continuing education, as well as an urgent need to address policies that undermine social work clients' access to family planning information and services.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-12192007-183942 |
| Date | 20 December 2007 |
| Creators | Bell, Melissa M. |
| Contributors | Christina Newhill, Ph.D., Esther Sales, Ph.D., Gary Koeske, Ph.D., Susan Albrecht, Ph.D |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-12192007-183942/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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