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Sexually active but not pregnant: A comparison of teens who risk and teens who plan

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Abstract

In a departure from the more traditional interest in pregnant adolescents, this research describes the characteristics of a clinic sample of adolescent and mostly minority women who have been sexually active for at least one year and have never been pregnant. Within this group, only 36% were consistent contraceptive users while the others had only sporadically or never used contraception. More importantly, rather than being quite different from one another, these young women had the same stated motivations for avoiding pregnancy. We suggest that adolescents may lack cognitive consistency on this subject and that clinic counselors must not rely on the stated motivations of adolescents to avoid pregnancy.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Population and Family Health, Columbia University, USA

    Susan Philliber (Assistant Director for Social Science Research)

Authors
  1. Judith Burns Jones
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  2. Susan Philliber
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Additional information

This is a revision of a paper presented at the annual meetings, American Public Health Association, Los Angeles, November 1981. HHS Grant No. 02-H-000-477, provided financial support for this research.

Assistant Director, with responsibility for direction of the Women's Reproductive Health Care Program, Center for Population and Family Health, Columbia University. Major interest is delivery of quality preventive health services to high-risk women.

Received Ph.D. in sociology from Florida State University. Major interest is adolescent fertility.

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Burns Jones, J., Philliber, S. Sexually active but not pregnant: A comparison of teens who risk and teens who plan. J Youth Adolescence 12, 235–251 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02090989

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02090989

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