What's my motivation?: Segmenting 18-30 year old women for unintended pregnancy prevention

This study illustrates how cluster analysis was used to segment an audience for a campaign to prevent unintended pregnancies in 18—30 year old women. About half of all are unintended, but few interventions have been designed to encourage young adult women to use contraceptives consistently and appropriately. Part of the challenge may reside in the heterogeneity of the group's perceptions. This diverse audience can be divided into segments that make it possible for the tailoring and targeting of specific messages. Previous research indicated that threat, efficacy, and fear were important factors in influencing intentions to use contraceptives; therefore, the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) was used for this cluster analysis. A telephone survey of 18-30 year old women was conducted. The analysis included only the women who reported having had sexual intercourse and were not trying to become pregnant (N= 401). The constructs of EPPM and age were used for conducting a K-means cluster analysis with 4 clusters. Group one (27.8%) was categorized by high levels of susceptibility, but very low levels of fear. Group two (23.8%) had high levels of efficacy and higher levels of fear. The third group (34.7%) was not fearful of pregnancy and had low levels of susceptibility. The final group (13.8%) was younger than the other groups and had the lowest levels of efficacy. The presentation will examine the clusters and illustrate how campaign messages can be tailored to meet the needs of each cluster.