TY - JOUR
T1 - Do adolescents want to avoid pregnancy? Attitudes toward pregnancy as predictors of pregnancy.
AU - Jaccard, James
AU - Dodge, Tonya
AU - Dittus, Patricia
N1 - Funding Information:
This research is based on data from the Add Health project, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry (PI) and Peter Bearman, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with cooperative funding participation by the National Cancer Institute; the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; the National Institute of Drug Abuse; the National Institute of General Medical Sciences; the National Institute of Mental Health; the National Institute of Nursing Research; the Office of AIDS Research, NIH; the Office of Behavior and Social Science Research, NIH; the Office of the Director, NIH; the Office of Research on Women’s Health, NIH; the Office of Population Affairs, DHHS; the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DHHS; the Office of Minority Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DHHS; the Office of Minority Health, Office of Public Health and Science, DHHS; the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, DHHS; and the National Science Foundation.
PY - 2003/8
Y1 - 2003/8
N2 - PURPOSE: To document the extent to which adolescents feel ambivalent towards getting pregnant and to examine the relationship between pregnancy attitudes and the occurrence of a pregnancy one year later. Demographic correlates of pregnancy attitudes also were examined. METHODS: This was a prospective study using a subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data base. The sample was 4869 adolescent females in grades 9 through 11 who completed two interviews at a one year interval. Logistic regression analyses were used to predict occurrence of a pregnancy at wave 2 from attitudes toward pregnancy at wave 1. RESULTS: A substantial number of adolescent females (15%-30%) reported some degree of ambivalence toward becoming pregnant relative to their peers. Adolescent females' attitudes towards pregnancy were predictive of the occurrence of a pregnancy one year later. Additionally, demographic correlates of the pregnancy attitude were identified, including differences due to ethnicity, age, relationship status, mother's education level, and whether the adolescent came from a one or a two parent home. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that a significant minority of adolescents have some ambivalence toward pregnancy relative to their peers and that these attitudes are predictive of the occurrence of pregnancy.
AB - PURPOSE: To document the extent to which adolescents feel ambivalent towards getting pregnant and to examine the relationship between pregnancy attitudes and the occurrence of a pregnancy one year later. Demographic correlates of pregnancy attitudes also were examined. METHODS: This was a prospective study using a subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data base. The sample was 4869 adolescent females in grades 9 through 11 who completed two interviews at a one year interval. Logistic regression analyses were used to predict occurrence of a pregnancy at wave 2 from attitudes toward pregnancy at wave 1. RESULTS: A substantial number of adolescent females (15%-30%) reported some degree of ambivalence toward becoming pregnant relative to their peers. Adolescent females' attitudes towards pregnancy were predictive of the occurrence of a pregnancy one year later. Additionally, demographic correlates of the pregnancy attitude were identified, including differences due to ethnicity, age, relationship status, mother's education level, and whether the adolescent came from a one or a two parent home. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that a significant minority of adolescents have some ambivalence toward pregnancy relative to their peers and that these attitudes are predictive of the occurrence of pregnancy.
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U2 - 10.1016/S1054-139X(03)00134-4
DO - 10.1016/S1054-139X(03)00134-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 12890598
AN - SCOPUS:0642305982
SN - 1054-139X
VL - 33
SP - 79
EP - 83
JO - The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine
JF - The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine
IS - 2
ER -