title: Religious variations in perceived infertility and inconsistent contraceptive use among unmarried young adults in the United States.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In this paper, we examine associations among personal religiosity, perceived infertility, and inconsistent contraceptive use among unmarried young adults (ages 18-29).
  
  
  METHODS
  The data for this investigation came from the National Survey of Reproductive and Contraceptive Knowledge (n = 1,695). We used multinomial logistic regression to model perceived infertility, adjusted probabilities to model rationales for perceived infertility, and binary logistic regression to model inconsistent contraceptive use.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Evangelical Protestants were more likely than non-affiliates to believe that they were infertile. Among the young women who indicated some likelihood of infertility, evangelical Protestants were also more likely than their other Protestant or non-Christian faith counterparts to believe that they were infertile because they had unprotected sex without becoming pregnant. Although evangelical Protestants were more likely to exhibit inconsistent contraception use than non-affiliates, we were unable to attribute any portion of this difference to infertility perceptions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Whereas most studies of religion and health emphasize the salubrious role of personal religiosity, our results suggest that evangelical Protestants may be especially likely to hold misconceptions about their fertility. Because these misconceptions fail to explain higher rates of inconsistent contraception use among evangelical Protestants, additional research is needed to understand the principles and motives of this unique religious community.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology and Center for Demography & Population Health, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. Electronic address: aburdette@fsu.edu.
authors.forename: Amy M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Burdette
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi.
authors.forename: Stacy H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Haynes
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.
authors.forename: Terrence D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Texas-San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas.
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Bartkowski
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003267:Contraception / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D003268:Contraception Behavior / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007246:Infertility / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012847:Single Person / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Contraceptive use; Perceived infertility; Religion; Sexual health