TY - JOUR
T1 - Variation in Pregnancy Intendedness Across U.S. Women’s Pregnancies
AU - Shreffler, Karina
AU - Greil, Arthur L.
AU - Mitchell, Katherine Stamps
AU - McQuillan, Julia
N1 - Funding Information:
We used a representative sample of women ages 25–45 from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers (NSFB). The NSFB is a national random-digit-dialing (RDD) telephone survey designed to assess social and health factors related to reproductive choices and fertility among U.S. women. The RDD sampling of landline telephone numbers over-sampled U.S. zip codes with over 40 % minority representation. Women with a biomedical fertility barrier were also over-sampled through screening questions, and the survey was conducted in Spanish and English. Weighted results are nationally representative. The sample design included a pre-notification letter with a $1 or $2 cash incentive for all telephone numbers with address matches. A minimum of 10 follow-up contact calls were made to potential participants. The NSFB includes 4,712 women and 926 of their spouses/partners. The estimated response rate (AAPOR RR4) for the sample is 53.0 %. The first wave of data was collected between 2004 and 2006. Methodological information, including the methodology report, introductory letters, interview schedules, interviewer guides, data imputation procedures, and a detailed description of the planned missing design can be accessed at: http://sodapop.pop.psu.edu/codebooks/nsfb/wave1/ . Funding for the NSFB was received from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and Institutional Review Board approval was obtained from the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This research complied with established survey research ethical standards and was approved by the lead author’s IRB as an exempt study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York.
PY - 2015/5/1
Y1 - 2015/5/1
N2 - How stable are women’s pregnancy intentions across their reproductive lifespans? Are there demographic, social, or attitudinal characteristics that are associated with differing pregnancy intentions patterns? Patterns of intendedness across pregnancies were examined using a sample of 3,110 women ages 25–45 who have been pregnant at least twice from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers. Multinomial logistic regression analyses assessed associations between patterns of intentions and respondents’ economic/social status, values and ideologies to determine if intentions are a stable characteristic or pregnancy-specific. The majority of women (60 %) reported varying intendedness across individual pregnancies, indicating that intendedness tends to be pregnancy-specific. Sociodemographic status as well as values and ideologies were significantly associated with pregnancy intendedness patterns. Compared to women who intended each pregnancy, women who were ambivalent, did not intend each pregnancy, or had intermittent intendedness were more likely to be single, younger, Black, report lower importance of motherhood and religiosity and were less likely to be Hispanic. A substantial proportion of women report the intendedness of their pregnancies varied between pregnancies. Research and policy addressing unintended pregnancies should consider that pregnancy intentions are not a static characteristic of most women.
AB - How stable are women’s pregnancy intentions across their reproductive lifespans? Are there demographic, social, or attitudinal characteristics that are associated with differing pregnancy intentions patterns? Patterns of intendedness across pregnancies were examined using a sample of 3,110 women ages 25–45 who have been pregnant at least twice from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers. Multinomial logistic regression analyses assessed associations between patterns of intentions and respondents’ economic/social status, values and ideologies to determine if intentions are a stable characteristic or pregnancy-specific. The majority of women (60 %) reported varying intendedness across individual pregnancies, indicating that intendedness tends to be pregnancy-specific. Sociodemographic status as well as values and ideologies were significantly associated with pregnancy intendedness patterns. Compared to women who intended each pregnancy, women who were ambivalent, did not intend each pregnancy, or had intermittent intendedness were more likely to be single, younger, Black, report lower importance of motherhood and religiosity and were less likely to be Hispanic. A substantial proportion of women report the intendedness of their pregnancies varied between pregnancies. Research and policy addressing unintended pregnancies should consider that pregnancy intentions are not a static characteristic of most women.
KW - Fertility intentions
KW - Life course
KW - Pregnancy intention
KW - Pregnancy planning
KW - Reproductive career
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84939898022&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10995-014-1615-8
DO - 10.1007/s10995-014-1615-8
M3 - Article
C2 - 25260541
AN - SCOPUS:84939898022
SN - 1092-7875
VL - 19
SP - 932
EP - 938
JO - Maternal and Child Health Journal
JF - Maternal and Child Health Journal
IS - 5
ER -