The perception of pregnancy probability among contracepting and non-contracepting adolescent women

Includes bibliographical references (pages 41-45)The purpose of this research was to investigate adolescent women???s perception of pregnancy probability associated with unprotected intercourse. Seventy women, age 13 to 17 were administered a questionnaire at a family planning agency. Two groups were identified for comparison: regular users of an effective method of contraception and non-users. Hypothesis I stated that adolescent women who regularly use an effective method of contraception will believe in a higher probability of pregnancy among women engaging in unprotected intercourse than will adolescent women who do not regularly use an effective method of contraception. Hypothesis II stated that adolescent women who regularly use an effective method of contraception will believe subjectively that they have a higher probability of pregnancy with unprotected intercourse than will adolescent women who do not regularly use an effective method of contraception. The chi-square test of significance was calculated on the data associated with the stated hypothesis. Hypothesis I was found to be significant at the .05 level of probability. Hypothesis II was not found to be significant. An additional finding was that when the sample was considered as a whole and a comparison was made of the perception of personal pregnancy risk with the perception of the risk of others, the subjects saw themselves significantly less at risk, P < .001. The findings indicate that there is a relationship between contraceptive use and beliefs concerning pregnancy probability with unprotected intercourse