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  • Title: Psychosocial conventionality, health orientation, and contraceptive use in adolescence.
    Author: Costa FM, Jessor R, Fortenberry JD, Donovan JE.
    Journal: J Adolesc Health; 1996 Jun; 18(6):404-16. PubMed ID: 8803732.
    Abstract:
    PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to determine psychosocial and behavioral factors that are associated with variation in contraceptive use among adolescents. Because regular use of contraception may be seen both as a conventional behavior and as a health-protective behavior, analyses assess the association between psychosocial conventionality and health orientation, on the one hand, and variation in contraceptive use, on the other. METHODS: Analyses are based on an urban sample of 971 white, African-American, and Hispanic male and female sexually active high school students. Study participants filled out a 38-page questionnaire that included a wide range of measures derived from Problem-Behavior Theory. RESULTS: Correlational analysis and hierarchical regression analysis indicate that more regular contraceptive use is associated with greater psychosocial conventionality and also with greater orientation toward health for both male and female adolescents. These relationships hold when the sociodemographic characteristics of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, grade in school, family composition, and pregnancy experience are controlled. The linkages of psychosocial conventionality and health orientation to contraceptive behavior are stronger for African-American than for white and Hispanic adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings establish a more comprehensive and more distal set of influences on regularity of contraceptive use. In its negative relationship to problem behavior and its positive linkage with health behavior, contraceptive behavior may be seen as part of a larger, organized system of behavior in this stage of development (i.e., a more conventional adolescent lifestyle). This study examines the influence of psychosocial conventionality and health value orientation on regularity of condom use among adolescents in the US. Data were obtained from 971 ethnically and racially mixed students from a large urban school district in the Rocky Mountain Region who were followed up in the final wave of a 4-wave longitudinal study of adolescent health and development in 1992. The sample included only non-virgins and unmarried, sexually active persons, who had scores ranging from 151-217 on a regularity of contraceptive use measure. The most commonly used contraceptive method was the condom. Explanatory factors included a three-item scale of contraceptive use, three indexes of conventionality (the Independence-Achievement Value Discrepancy index and the Parent-Friends Compatibility and the Deviant Behavior scales), and 11 health measures on personality characteristics, perceived environmental factors, and behavior (Value on Health, Maternal Model for Health Behavior, and Exercise scales). Findings are given for a bivariate analysis, multivariate analyses, and a comparative analysis of bivariate and multivariate results. The general finding is that greater psychosocial and behavioral conventionality and greater health orientation were associated with more regular contraceptive use among sexually active male and female adolescents. Patterns were comparable for males and females. The relationships remained stable, after controls were introduced for sociodemographic characteristics. Conventionality was expressed as a higher value being placed on academic achievement and greater involvement in school achievement than on independence and having fewer friends with problem behaviors, such as drinking and smoking marijuana. More regular contraceptive use was related to greater health orientation, such as exercise, healthy diets, and seat belt use. The relationship between health orientation and conventionality and contraceptive use was stronger for African-Americans.
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