Young adults' attitudes, beliefs and knowledge: Modeling key factors associated with risk for unplanned pregnancy

The redefinition of the twenties as a new life stage has clear relevance for the reproductive health field. The reproductive decisions that this cohort makes will shape not only their lives but the lives of the next generation. To gain a better understanding of young adults' attitudes, beliefs and knowledge around pregnancy prevention, in 2009 we conducted a nationally representative telephone survey of 897 women and 903 men, all aged 18–29 and unmarried, oversampling African-Americans and Latinos. In this analysis, we will develop several multi-dimensional attitude, knowledge and belief measures and examine the relative importance of these measures in predicting pregnancy prevention intentions and behaviors. Our composite measures focus on young adults' attitudes about pregnancy (including the importance of planning pregnancies, ambivalence about becoming pregnant or having a baby, and beliefs about personal pregnancy risk (due to infecundity or infertility)); general attitudes (including being fatalistic about life or having mistrust of medical institutions); and knowledge and beliefs about contraception (including knowledge about methods and their effectiveness and beliefs about the potential for and seriousness of method side effects). We will use multivariate modeling to examine the relationships between these measures and young adults' current contraceptive use, method use consistency and the likelihood that they will have unprotected sex or use highly effective methods in the future. Results from these analyses will help inform the design of services and educational messages that assist young adults in lowering their risk for unplanned pregnancy.