Ambivalent Feelings About Parenthood May Lead to Inconsistent Contraceptive Use-and Pregnancy

Although the concept of pregnancy intention has been widely used in research intention has been measured with a relatively small number of items over the years. As a consequence even when a significant correlation is found between intention and behavior there is generally a fairly large subset of women among whom that correlation is not observed. The paper suggests that measures of intention have been used to predict what can only be predicted in the presence of cogent measures of contraceptive attitudes. A further argument is that data available on the intention status in the US may not represent as serious a failure in contraceptive practice as is often supposed. Central to understanding the relationship between fertility intention and contraceptive use is an understanding of the concept of ambivalence toward both conception and contraception. It is further argued that ambivalent feelings about parenthood may lead to inconsistent contraceptive use. Ambivalence toward birth control methods is implicated in many cases in which an unintended pregnancy occurs. The implications for understanding adolescent childbearing which has been of such public concern in the US are discussed.