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Female Adolescents' Perceptions of Male Partners' Pregnancy Desire
Author(s) -
Heavey Elizabeth J.,
Moysich Kirsten B.,
Hyland Andrew,
Druschel Charlotte M.,
Sill Michael W.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of midwifery and women's health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.543
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1542-2011
pISSN - 1526-9523
DOI - 10.1016/j.jmwh.2007.12.002
Subject(s) - pregnancy , mcnemar's test , feeling , socioeconomic status , happiness , psychology , demography , medicine , pregnancy test , population , psychological intervention , developmental psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , environmental health , statistics , genetics , mathematics , sociology , biology
Our objective was to examine the relationship between pregnancy desire among female adolescents and their perception of desire for pregnancy in their male partners. This is an observational cross‐sectional study which examined 92 surveys administered to adolescent women between the ages of 14 to 19 years at two obstetrical care services serving a population from limited socioeconomic backgrounds. Participants were all pregnant or awaiting pregnancy test results. Participants were asked about their levels of pregnancy happiness and desire and their partners' levels of pregnancy happiness and desire. Spearman's correlation coefficient was calculated and discordant pairs were examined with McNemar's test. Logistic regression was utilized to examine the relationship between male and female pregnancy happiness and desire. We found that there was a significant correlation between the adolescents' feelings about pregnancy and their perceptions of their male partners' feelings about pregnancy (0.326; P = .004). McNemar's test indicated that male partners were significantly more likely to be reported to feel positively about the pregnancy than female partners ( P = .017). Female adolescents who reported male partners who felt positively about the pregnancy were four times as likely to report having desired their pregnancy now or sooner (odds ratio [OR] = 4.35). We conclude that male partners may impact adolescent pregnancy desire. Further prospective studies are needed and male‐focused adolescent pregnancy interventions should be developed.