Background: Just under half of pregnancies in the United States are unintended. And unintended births are particularly high among married and cohabiting adult women. Though family planning behaviors occur in a dyadic context with potentially joint influences of men and women on contraceptive use and pregnancy, most research on pregnancy and contraceptive use is based on reports from only women. Methods: I examined the pregnancy beliefs and contraceptive values of both members of cohabiting and married adult couples to determine how these individual-level characteristics come together at the dyad-level to shape pregnancy outcomes for the couple. I performed multinomial logit structural equation modeling analyses using longitudinal data from the National Couples Survey. I included demographic covariates that have been implicated in prior research as influential for contraceptive use and unintended pregnancy. Results: The male partner's pregnancy beliefs and contraceptive values significantly predicted dyadic risk of unintended pregnancy even after accounting for female partner's responses on these variables. Non-Hispanic Black race and low socioeconomic status emerged as risk factors. Discussion: This study indicates that dyadic analyses are needed to account for male partner influences to appropriately model risk for unintended pregnancy in research. The findings of this research also highlight demographic groups that may benefit from targeted dyadic intervention. / Ph. D. / Background: Just under half of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned at conception. Unintended births are particularly high among married and cohabiting adult women. Though family planning behaviors occur in a couple context, and men and women likely both influence contraceptive use and pregnancy, most research on pregnancy and contraceptive use is based on reports from only women. Methods: I examined beliefs about positive outcomes of pregnancy and values for contraception to be effective of men and women in cohabiting and married adult couples to determine how these individual-level attitudes come together to shape pregnancy outcomes for the couple. I used existing longitudinal data from the National Couples Survey, the theory of triadic influence, and structural equation modeling to test whether my hypothesized relationships between attitudes and behaviors were supported. I also accounted for demographic factors that prior research has flagged as influential for contraceptive use and unintended pregnancy. Results: The male partner’s pregnancy beliefs and contraceptive values significantly predicted whether the couple became unintentionally pregnant (or was at high risk of becoming so) even after accounting for their female partner’s responses on these variables. Non-Hispanic Black race and low socioeconomic status emerged as risk factors. Discussion: The results of this study highlight the importance of including both men and women in research to reach a more nuanced understanding of the factors that shape unintended pregnancy. The findings of this research also suggest that couples in specific demographic groups may benefit from targeted intervention to help them attain their reproductive goals.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/83495 |
| Date | 15 December 2016 |
| Creators | Brown, Emily Cheshire |
| Contributors | Human Development, Kaestle, Christine E., Few-Demo, April L., Benson, Mark J., Deater-Deckard, Kirby |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds