title: Do adolescents want to avoid pregnancy? Attitudes toward pregnancy as predictors of pregnancy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To document the extent to which adolescents feel ambivalent towards getting pregnant and to examine the relationship between pregnancy attitudes and the occurrence of a pregnancy one year later. Demographic correlates of pregnancy attitudes also were examined.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a prospective study using a subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data base. The sample was 4869 adolescent females in grades 9 through 11 who completed two interviews at a one year interval. Logistic regression analyses were used to predict occurrence of a pregnancy at wave 2 from attitudes toward pregnancy at wave 1.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A substantial number of adolescent females (15%-30%) reported some degree of ambivalence toward becoming pregnant relative to their peers. Adolescent females' attitudes towards pregnancy were predictive of the occurrence of a pregnancy one year later. Additionally, demographic correlates of the pregnancy attitude were identified, including differences due to ethnicity, age, relationship status, mother's education level, and whether the adolescent came from a one or a two parent home.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results suggest that a significant minority of adolescents have some ambivalence toward pregnancy relative to their peers and that these attitudes are predictive of the occurrence of pregnancy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, New York 12222, USA.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jaccard
authors.forename: Tonya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dodge
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dittus
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D014481:United States