Perceived competence and contraceptive use during adolescence☆
Received 10 August 2009; received in revised form 2 November 2009; accepted 5 November 2009. published online 07 December 2009.
Abstract
Background
Little is known about psychosocial correlates of different contraceptive methods in adolescence.
Study Design
Cross-sectional analyses of 209 postmenarcheal girls [mean age (years)±SD=15.68±1.74], primarily Caucasian (62.8%) or African American (32.8%). Competence (activities and social) and rule-breaking behavior were assessed by the Youth Self Report (YSR; adolescent) and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; parent). Three contraceptive-use groups were created: no hormonal contraceptive (n=142), combined oral contraceptives or the transdermal patch (COCs/patch, n=41), and depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA, n=20).
Results
There was a significant effect of contraceptive-use group on competence (p=.003). The DMPA group had lower competence (CBCL activities and social; YSR social) than the no-hormonal-contraceptive and COCs/patch groups. The COCs/patch group scored lower than the no-hormonal-contraceptive group on YSR activities competence, but was not different from the DMPA group. Lastly, there was an effect of contraceptive-use group on CBCL (but not YSR) rule-breaking behavior (p=.029) with the DMPA group having higher rule-breaking behavior than the other groups.
Conclusions
Type of contraceptive method was associated with parent and adolescent's perceived competence. For rule-breaking behavior, parental perception may be more relevant to contraceptive use.
aDivision of Adolescent Medicine, MLC 4000, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
bSchool of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
☆ This research was supported by National Institute of Drug Abuse R01 DA016402; in part by the USPHS Grant # UL1RR026314 from the National Center for Research Resources, NIH; and by the National Institute of Health/Office of Research on Women's Health 1K12 HD051953.
ABSTRACT