Psychosocial correlates of adolescent males' pregnancy intention.

Abstract

To identify psychosocial differences between sexually experienced male adolescents who indicate intentions to get someone pregnant and those who do not. Cross-sectional study of 101 sexually experienced adolescent males recruited from a sexually transmitted disease clinic in northern California. We used Student's t tests and regressions to examine psychosocial differences between males who reported any intention versus no intention to get someone pregnant in the next 6 months, and we used analyses of variance to examine differences among different combinations of pregnancy plans/likelihood. Adolescents' reports of their plans for getting someone pregnant differed from their assessments of the likelihood that they would do so (chi2 = 24.33; df = 1). Attitudes toward pregnancy and participants' mothers' educational attainment differentiated those with clear pregnancy intentions (planning and likely) from those with clear intentions to avoid pregnancy (not planning and not likely) To reduce the rates of adolescent childbearing, males' pregnancy intentions must be assessed and asked about in multiple ways.