Does Female-Male Disagreement Over Pregnancy Intentions Affect Contraceptive Use? Assessing Racial-Ethnic Patterns in the US

• In Event: 4146 - Fertility

Abstract

We use pregnancy records from the 2015-2017 National Survey of Family Growth to identify multiple scenarios of female-male agreement and disagreement over fertility intentions. We assess racial-ethnic patterns in the prevalence of each of these scenarios, and how they relate to contraceptive behavior at the time of conception. We find that Black women’s pregnancies are more likely to occur in a context of female-male disagreement over fertility intentions. In cases of disagreement, women who did not desire to get pregnant were less likely to report contraceptive use at the time they conceived, and less likely to report using moderately- and highly-effective methods. This contraceptive pattern was more pronounced among Black and Hispanic women, compared to Whites. Our findings suggest that racial-ethnic heterogeneity in the prevalence of female-male disagreement over fertility intentions, and in contraceptive responses to such conflicting goals contribute to explain racial-ethnic disparities in unintended pregnancy.

Authors

• Monica Lisette Caudillo Contreras, University of Maryland-College Park

• Seung Wan Kim

• Jaein Lee, Gettysburg College