Do Latino Youth Really Want to Get Pregnant?: Assessing Pregnancy Wantedness

Despite recent declines, Latinas bear a disproportionate burden of teen births. Understanding social, cultural, and demographic factors underlying pregnancy desire among Latino adolescents is needed to design effective teen pregnancy prevention interventions. A questionnaire was completed by 794 Lat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAmerican journal of sexuality education Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. 329 - 346
Main Authors Martínez-García, Genevieve, Carter-Pokras, Olivia, Atkinson, Nancy, Portnoy, Barry, Lee, Sunmin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 03.07.2014
Subjects
Acculturation
Adolescents
Age Differences
Attitude Change
Attitude Measures
Behavior Change
Contraception
Correlation
Educational Attainment
Family Influence
Gender Differences
Hispanic Americans
Intention
Maryland
Mothers
Parent Influence
Place of Residence
Pregnancy
Prevention
Questionnaires
Regression (Statistics)
Scores
Semi Structured Interviews
Sexuality
Social Influences
Youth
Maryland
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Summary:Despite recent declines, Latinas bear a disproportionate burden of teen births. Understanding social, cultural, and demographic factors underlying pregnancy desire among Latino adolescents is needed to design effective teen pregnancy prevention interventions. A questionnaire was completed by 794 Latino youth including a "pregnancy wantedness scale" (PWS) to assess attitudes toward an early pregnancy and socio-demographic variables. Regression analyses examined the association between these variables and PWS score. PWS scores for all groups were below but near the midpoint, suggesting ambivalence toward an early pregnancy. Being female, older, acculturated, using hormonal contraception, living with parents, and having an educated mother were significantly associated with lower PWS scores, but impacted youth differently depending on their sex and sexual experience. Multi-component Latino teen pregnancy prevention strategies should address behavioral and attitudinal differences based on sex and sexual experience and acknowledge the contribution of social determinants on pregnancy intentions.
ISSN:1554-6128
DOI:10.1080/15546128.2014.944735