Factors Effecting Personal Responsibility and Pregnancy Prevention

Teen pregnancy has been an area of concern in the United States for many years. Given the growing number of births to girls between 15 and 19 years of age, it is of no wonder. Teens are taking risks for unwanted pregnancy and disease, although they have no intention of experiencing childbirth. The research continually debates the relationship between birth control, sex education, and the use of that knowledge. The Psychosocial Factors of self esteem and locus of control have also been found to be determinants of adolescent birth control use and sexual activity, although the strength of this determinant is conflicting. Current research focuses primarily on adolescent females and teen pregnancy, with little attention devoted to adolescent males. The purpose of this study was to determine if the same set of variables which distinguish adolescent females who become pregnant and those who do not also distinguish adolescent males who father from those who do not. The outcome of this factor concerns issues about sex education, family planning, onset of sexual activity, and public policy. The Health Belief Model Survey, Piers-Harris SelfConcept Scale for Children, and the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children were administered to 100 adjudicated adolescent males. A discriminant analysis showed that 63.54% of the cases could be correctly classified from a linear combination of the factor scores on Serious Affective Consequences of Pregnancy, Barriers to Birth Control Use, Benefits of Birth Control Use, Interpersonal Benefits to Birth Control Use, and the raw score on the Piers-Harris Self Concept Scale for Children. These findings are discussed in terms of the implications for future research which would be useful in clarifying the relationship between adolescent males and teen pregnancy, and Policy implications of the results are considered