Contraceptive Use Patterns Across Teens Sexual Relationships

1
Contraceptive Use Patterns Across Teens Sexual
Relationships

• Jennifer Manlove
• Suzanne Ryan
• Kerry Franzetta

This research was funded by NICHD through grant
R01 HD40830-01.
2
Research Questions

• Do contraceptive use patterns differ across
  female teens sexual relationships?
• How are teens current relationship and partner
  characteristics, and their sexual histories,
  associated with contraceptive use and consistency
  in current relationships?
• Does the association between relationship factors
  and contraceptive use and consistency differ by
  whether teens have ever used hormonal
  contraception?

3
Data

• The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent
  Health (Add Health)
• Nationally representative sample of adolescents
  in grades 7-12 in the United States in 1995
• School-based design
• Relationship histories from two waves of data
  collection
• Wave I in-home survey (1995)
• Wave II in-home survey (1996)
• 14,736 adolescents participated in both waves

4
Sample

• Analysis restricted to sexually experienced
  females
• Created a sequentially-ordered relationship-level
  file, with one observation for every sexual
  relationship reported
• n 5,344 sexual relationships (contributed by
  2,414 female adolescents)

5
Dependent Variables

• Contraceptive Use
• Did you or your partner ever use any method of
  birth control?
• Contraceptive Consistency
• Did you or your partner use some method of birth
  control every time you had sex?

6
Contraceptive Use and Consistency in Teens
Sexual Relationships(Dependent Variables)
Contraceptive Use
Contraceptive Consistency
Never 25
Sometimes/Never 46
Always 54
Ever 75
7
Characteristics of Current Relationship

• Teen-partner homogamy
• Relationship type
• Exclusivity/Intimacy
• Age at initiation/Duration
• Communication

8
Sexual History Characteristics

• of previous relationships in which teen always
  used contraception
• Any previous relationship where teen used
  hormonal contraception
• of previous relationships that were risky
• of previous relationships in which teen
  discussed contraception before sex
• Number of previous sexual partners
• Age at first sex with first partner
• Time since last relationship ended

9
Family and Individual Characteristics

• Family background factors
• 2 biological/adoptive parents
• Parent education
• Individual factors
• Race/ethnicity
• Picture Vocabulary Test score
• Received pregnancy and AIDS education in school

10
Analytic Methods

• Descriptive and bivariate analyses
• Random effects logit models
• Contraceptive Use Compare the ever group to
  those who never used a method.
• Contraceptive Consistency Compare those who
  always used a method to those who never or
  only sometimes did.
• Interactions with ever used hormonal
  contraception
• Random effects models control for unobserved
  heterogeneity

11
Question 1Do contraceptive use patterns differ
across female teens sexual relationships?
12
Patterns of Contraceptive Use
13
Contraceptive use and consistency were less
common among teens with a greater number of
relationships
Contraceptive Use
Contraceptive Consistency
14
Contraceptive consistency in the first
relationship declined as of partners increased
15
Question 2 How are teens current partner and
relationship characteristics, and their sexual
history, associated with contraceptive use and
consistency in current relationships?
16
Odds Ratios, Predicting Contraceptive Use and
Consistency(Full Sample n5,344)
plt.05 plt.01 plt.001
17
Odds Ratios, Predicting Contraceptive Use and
Consistency(Full Sample n5,344)
plt.05 plt.01 plt.001
18
Odds Ratios, Predicting Contraceptive Use and
Consistency(Romantic Sample n4,553)
plt.05 plt.01 plt.001
19
Non-significant Measures

• Partner/Relationship characteristics
• Non-monogamous relationship
• Sexual History characteristics
• Age at 1st sex with 1st partner
• Length of time since last relationship ended
• of previous relationships that were risky
• of previous relationships in which teens
  discussed contraception before sex (romantic
  only)

20
Question 3 Does the association between
relationship factors and contraceptive use and
consistency differ by whether teens have ever
used hormonal contraception?
21
Odds ratios Differences by Hormonal Use in the
Effect of Discussed Contraception on
Contraceptive Use

22
Other Interactions with Hormonal Use

• Age at first sex with each partner
• Couple-like activities
• Both characteristics were significantly
  associated with the contraceptive outcomes for
  teens who had never previously used a hormonal
  method
• Not significant for those who had used hormonal
  contraception in the past

23
Summary

• Female teens vary their contraceptive use
  patterns across sexual relationships.
• Current and previous relationship and partner
  characteristics are of critical importance to
  adolescent females contraceptive use decisions.
• The association between relationship factors and
  contraceptive outcomes is weaker for previous
  hormonal method users.

24
Implications

• Pregnancy prevention programs should
• consider integrating multiple dimensions of
  sexual relationships into role-play exercises
• target sexually experienced teens with any
  history of inconsistent contraceptive use as
  being in need of interventions for high-risk
  teens
• Research should
• include relationship characteristics as an
  important component of adolescent contraceptive
  decision-making models

25
www.childtrends.orgwww.childtrendsdatabank.org