Encyclopedia of Adolescence

Living Edition
| Editors: Roger J.R. Levesque

Birth Control

Living reference work entry
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32132-5_458-2
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Overview

The period of adolescence may be initiated by the ability to beget children, but the major response to that ability is efforts to control the potential births that may arise from it. Birth control involves the effort to determine when pregnancy occurs, and it can involve a variety of methods. Yet, research involving adolescents’ use of birth control is not as robust as might be expected given the importance of the topic. Still, some trends can be discerned from existing research, and they highlight the complexity of birth control decisions and their outcomes.

Birth Control

Birth control refers to the regulation of the number or spacing of offspring. The control is achieved either by preventing conception or by terminating pregnancy once conception has taken place. The extent to which, as well as how, adolescents should engage in birth control raises some of the most contentious issues facing adolescents, families, and broader society (see Levesque 2000). Controversies...

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References

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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Indiana UniversityBloomingtonUSA