Do perceptions of their partners’ childbearing desires affect young women’s pregnancy risk? Further study of ambivalence

We explore whether young women’s perceptions of their sexual partners’ childbearing desires contribute to their risk of pregnancy. We used weekly journal data collected from 787 young women to measure their childbearing desires and their perceptions of their partners’ childbearing desires. We then conducted hazard modelling to predict pregnancy risk with variables based on interactions between the women’s desires and their perceived partners’ desires. Models that include perceived partners’ desires perform better than one based on women’s desires alone. The best model contains three significant predictors: one confirms the importance of pronatal, ambivalent, and indifferent desires for pregnancy risk; one indicates that the perceived partners’ antinatal desires reduce women’s pregnancy risk; and one suggests that women who both perceive their partners accurately and are in agreement with them have a lower pregnancy risk. The results indicate that perceived partner data can improve prediction and enhance our understanding of pregnancy risk.