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Influence of Parents, Peers, and Partners on the Contraceptive Use of College Men and Women

1978; Wiley; Volume: 40; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/350929

1741-3737

Linda Thompson, Graham B. Spanier,

Gender Roles and Identity Studies

Self-administered questionnaires were completed by a nonprobability purposive sample of 434 never-married sexually active males and females between the ages of 17 and 22 years in order to investigate the relative influences of parents peers and partners on the contraceptive use of college men and women. Path analyses showed that the effects of involvement with partner sexual exclusivity and frequency of intercourse on contraceptive use are mostly indirect via influence from partner. Among the males in the sample partner influence emerged as a strong and singular contribution to contraceptive use. Involvement with partner was significantly and inversely related to contraceptive use unless the influence from partner intervened. A more complex pattern emerged among the females suggesting that young women are oriented toward partner and friends and the source of influence is related to extent of involvement with the sexual partner. Parents failed to significantly influence contraceptive use. Overall the models presented accounted for 31% of the variance in contraceptive use for females and 34% for males. Clearly influence from the partner to use contraception is a strong contributor to contraceptive use among young men and women.(AUTHORS MODIFIED)