The effect of a “safer sex” film as mediated by erotophobia and gender on attitudes toward condoms

This experiment tested the hypothesis that viewing an erotic demonstration of condom placement would affect a positive change in attitudes toward condoms and willingness to use them. It was expected that the effect would be mediated by erotophobia and gender. Subjects were classified as erotophobic or erotophilic and viewed a film that demonstrated either sex with condom use, sex without condom‐use, condom information without sex, or neutral subject material. Subjects were pre‐and post‐tested on the Attitude Toward Condoms Scale (Brown, 1984) and on willingness to use condoms. The results showed that those who viewed sex with condom‐use demonstrated a change in attitudes, regardless of gender or erotophobia classification. The discussion includes suggestions for increasing willingness to use condoms in men and the application of erotophobia to contraceptive attitudes and behavior.     

Transition from the Lactational Amenorrhea Method to other modern family planning methods in rural Bangladesh: Barrier analysis and implications for behavior change communication program intervention design

The timely transition from Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM)² to another modern family planning method contributes to healthy spacing of pregnancies by increasing the adoption of family planning during the first year postpartum. Yet, literature suggests challenges in completing a timely LAM transition. To guide program implementation in Bangladesh, this study identified factors influencing women's transition decisions.Eighty postpartum women, comprising 40 who transitioned from LAM³ and 40 who did not,⁴ participated. Half of each group participated in in-depth interviews to explore the decision-making process. All participants responded to a “Barrier Analysis” questionnaire to identify differences in eight behavioral determinants.More than half of transitioners switched to another modern method before or within the same month that LAM ended. Of the 18 transitioners who delayed,⁵ 15 waited for menses to return. For non-transitioners, key barriers included waiting for menses to return, misconceptions on return to fertility, and perceived lack of familial support. The LAM transition can help women prevent unintended pregnancy during the first year postpartum. Increased emphasis on counseling women about the risk of pregnancy, and misconceptions about personal fertility patterns are critical for facilitating the transition. Strategies should also include interventions that train health workers and improve social support.     

College student contraceptive use: A multivariate analysis

This study investigated the relationship of 22 variables—categorized as relating to sexual history, relationship, social support, contraception beliefs, and personality factors—to contraceptive use by college women and men. The use of effective contraception by both women and men was primarily associated with partner support for contraception; and the choice between oral contraceptives and condoms was associated with frequency of intercourse.     

Changing aids‐ and fertility‐related behavior: The effectiveness of sexual education

A questionnaire was used to access the effectiveness of a ten‐week university course on human sexuality in changing students' AIDS‐ and fertility‐related behavior. The students' knowledge and behavior were evaluated (1) early in the class before there were any discussions or readings about sexual behavior, AIDS, or birth control and (2) three months later—approximately one month after completing the class. A randomly selected control group of students who did not take the class on sexuality was given the questionnaire at the same two points in time. Compared to the control group, the experimental group showed significant increases in knowledge about the likelihood of contracting the virus from one act of vaginal intercourse. The experimental group also reported increased worry about contracting AIDS from their sexual activity, while the control group did not. Further, compared with the control group, the experimental group increased certain cautious behaviors, such as being more selective in their choice of sexual partners and asking their partners more questions about their AIDS‐related behavior. However, the course did not lead students to: 1) significantly increase their use of the condom or other forms of contraception, 2) decrease their number of sexual partners, or 3) spend a longer time getting to know new partners before engaging in sexual activity. Implications for sexual education are discussed.     

Reconfiguring Child and Parental Rights: A Case for Coerced Contraception

Flagrant child abuse and neglect touches community sensibilities and suggests the option of coerced contraception in dealing with irresponsible contraception. This idea is resisted by the notion that the right to reproduce is fundamental. Law and ethics uphold this right, seeing it grounded in privacy and bodily integrity. Gender, race and class issues also argue against the idea of coerced contraception. This essay challenges these traditional positions by constructing a case for coerced contraception from several viewpoints. On balance, the right to reproduce has considerably less legal and moral weight compared to the birthright of the child not to be harmed and to have an open future. Examined critically, coerced contraception does not represent an unusual or excessive burden. Strict scrutiny and due process issues are addressed in allowing coerced contraception to become public policy. Various objections to this thesis are anticipated and answered. These include, but are not limited to, the ideas that personal dignity and the physician patient relationship are endangered and that a slippery slope would lead to greater restrictions on personal freedom. Charles F. Thurber is Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Virginia.     

试论生育控制的伦理问题

生育控制是人类对自身的生育从自然选择转向人工选择的开端,它不仅仅是一个技术问题。目前生育控制方法主要包括避孕、人工流产、绝育,其中涉及的许多伦理问题历来是生命伦理学关注的焦点。     

Fraught with Ambivalence: Reproductive Intentions and Contraceptive Choices in a Sub-Saharan Fertility Transition

Demographic studies that search for signs of fertility transition in sub-Saharan Africa rarely examine the complex gamut of individual aspirations and misgivings, hopes and frustrations, failures and triumphs that accompany the emerging declines of fertility rates in the subcontinent. This study draws upon qualitative data collected in peri-urban areas of Maputo, Mozambique’s capital and largest metropolis, to explore contradictory meanings and feelings surrounding changes in fertility intentions and contraceptive choices. It argues that although changes in these two aspects of reproductive life are interrelated, they are predicated on distinct types and configurations of external pressures and psychological apparatus, which is often manifested as a puzzling disjunction between fertility preferences and contraceptive use. This disjunction can be further reinforced by persistent gender divisions in reproductive views and strategies. Informal social interaction plays an important role in building societal consensus over fertility matters, but because such interaction deals with reproductive intentions and contraceptive use through largely different mechanisms, it may also help accentuate the intentions-contraception disjunction. This study’s findings therefore call upon both researchers and policymakers to attend more closely to the multidimensionality of fertility transitions in sub-Saharan societies and specifically to the complexities underlying such popular notions as “unmet need for family planning,” “spacing” versus “limiting” births, or “spousal communication” on reproductive matters.     

民国时期知识女性对节育的认识和避孕方法

1922年4月桑格夫人访华之后在生育节制和母性自决的呼声中,知识女性逐渐形成生育自主观念,对传统妇女的社会性别角色直接提出了挑战。民国时期知识女性所采用的避孕方法,主要有周期避孕法、阴道置药法以及应用阴茎套、子宫帽、棉花子宫塞等机械避孕法。民国时期市场上所售的避孕药品的种类甚多,如史斑通、制育良友,她的友、金鸡纳霜等。这些都是国外进口的,其价钱较贵,不过中国国内制造的起泡药粉等避孕药物也相当流行。同时随着妇产科医术的发展,40年代接受结扎输卵管手术的妇女也逐渐增多。不过,民国时期传统打胎方药仍在民间广泛销售,并且不少妇女仍请旧式产婆或江湖郎中私下偷偷做堕胎。结果,围绕着生育空间的医疗支配与权威的建立,中西、新旧势力之间展开一场权力较量和争夺。     

Understanding the link between the economy and teenage sexual behavior and fertility outcomes

We use individual-level data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and state unemployment rates to examine how the economy affects fertility and its proximate determinants for several groups based on gender, age (15–17 and 18–20 groups), and race/ethnicity. We find that, for 15- to 17-year-old females, several behaviors leading to pregnancies and pregnancies themselves are higher when the unemployment rate is higher, which is consistent with the counter-cyclical fertility patterns for this group. For 18- to 20-year-old males, the results suggested counter-cyclical patterns of fertility behaviors/outcomes for whites, but pro-cyclical patterns for blacks. This research was funded by grant R03HD47407 from the National Institute on Child and Health Development.