The termination of adolescent out-of-wedlock pregnancies and the prospects for their primary prevention

The effects of prenatal education intervention on unwed prospective adolescent fathers

This study assesses the impact of a prenatal education program dealing with human sexuality, pregnancy, prenatal care, labor, delivery, and infant and child care on the unwed expectant adolescent father. It also assesses the relationship between the father's knowledge in these areas and his supportive behaviors toward the adolescent mother and the expected infant. The 28 black 15-18-year-old adolescent males who volunteered to participate in the study were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 15) or a control group (n = 13). Each was pretested (T-1) with Form A of a 75-item prenatal questionnaire, and posttested (T-2) with Form B of the same instrument after an intervention for the experimental group, or 4 weeks after the initial assessment for the comparison group. Findings suggest significant gains in knowledge for the experimental group at T-2 versus T-1 with regard to 1) pregnancy and prenatal care, and 2) infant development and child care. The data also suggest that fathers who were more informed tended to report more supportive behaviors toward the mother and the infant.

Teenage pregnancy and motherhood: a review of the literature

Medical and nonmedical studies of teenage pregnancy and its outcomes are reviewed, and the state of our current knowledge is assessed. It is suggested that, while the typical teenage girl is biologically ready for motherhood, a complex set of social and psychological variables leads those least well-suited for the role into becoming teenage parents. The effectiveness of special programs for pregnant adolescents and their offspring is examined, and implications for policy and prevention are offered.

Dynamics of contraceptive failures

The purpose of this study was to explore the vicissitudes of contraceptive efforts and practice, and human behavior contributing to contraceptive failure. A consecutive sample of 481 women, who visited various gynecological out-patient clinics of a New York City municipal hospital between August 1974 and August 1975, served as the study population. There were 181 women with planned pregnancies and 300 women with unplanned pregnancies. The data were gathered in personal interviews. By comparison of both groups it was discovered that the women with unplanned pregnancies, because of their lower frustration tolerance level, had been led by successive difficulties related to contraceptive efforts and practice to episodic, faulty, or nonuse of technically effective contraceptive methods. Thereafter, psychological processes and mechanisms gave rise to a false sense of security, which virtually prevented them from resuming contraceptive practice. These psychological processes and mechanisms also govern other spheres of human behavior and merit systematic investigation.

Patterns of contraceptive failures: the role of motivation re-examined

The vicissitudes of contraceptive efforts were studied by means of personal interviews in a sample of 100 women using the outpatient facilities of a metropolitan municipal hospital.

The women were consecutive abortion repeaters, free of any mental or emotional impairment, who made genuine efforts to practise birth control. The circumstances of their failure to prevent recurrent unwanted pregnancies were analysed, and led to these conclusions.

1. The average number of birth control methods used by the subjects was 1.9, which figure does not include a resumption of a method once replaced.

2. The role of motivation is but one, and not necessarily the most essential, element in successful contraceptive practice.

3. The interplay between contraceptive technology and various elements of human behaviour puts a limit on the effectiveness of any current contraceptive method; it products a significant and irreducible number of contraceptive failures that are relatively independent of any subjective motivation.

4. As a result of such interplay, many women would temporarily suspend contraceptive practice; the subsequent activation of psychological mechanisms then makes them ignore the risk of preganancy.