title: Low-income women describe fertility-related expectations: descriptive norms, injunctive norms, and behavior.
abstract: Social norms surrounding sexuality, pregnancy, and childbearing may help guide women's health-related behaviors. In this study, we explore low-income women's perceptions of fertility-related norms by allowing women to describe their experiences with normative expectations. Semistructured interviews (n = 30) suggested that women in low-income subject positions articulate descriptive norms that generally correspond with mainstream descriptive norms, identify two major sources of injunctive norms concerning fertility and sexuality- authoritative and peer-oriented-and often align their behaviors according to subgroup expectations communicated in the form of peer-oriented injunctive norms. We discuss these results in light of the extant literature on social norms.
authors.affiliation: School of Communication Studies, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA. bute@ohio.edu
authors.forename: Jennifer J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Bute
authors.forename: Robin E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Jensen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D043762:Reproductive Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D012945:Social Values; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult