Family and Peer Influence on Obtaining a Method of Contraception

This study examines the influence of parents peers and partners on teenage womens contraceptive-seeking behavior and identifies sources of variation in the amount and direction of influence. Data are based on a survey of 2884 unmarried US women under 20 who were making their 1st visit to a family planning clinic. All family planning clinic sites in 21 of Marylands 23 counties were included in the study. The majority of these young women report active participation in and support for the clinic visit by significant others. However the involvement of parents or peers seems to reflect alternative support strategies: girls who involve parents tend not to involve peers and vice versa. Parental involvement is most likely to be reported by black girls and is least likely among white girls with relatively well-educated mothers. An interpretation of these findings is based on structural and normative differences between American black and white families. The data suggest that a critical factor in determining the particular support strategy to be adopted is perceived parental approval of the adolescent daughters action in seeking a method of contraception. Parental approval for contraception was markedly higher among black than among white parents and was least likely if the young womans mother is white and relatively well-educated. The data imply that contraception has different meanings in different social contexts.