From Sugar Daddies to Baby Daddies: Pregnancy Prevention among Adolescents in Abusive and Potentially Coercive Relationships

Janet Rosenbaum, University of Maryland
Jonathan M. Zenilman, Johns Hopkins University
Eva Rose, Emory University
Gina Wingood, Emory University
Ralph DiClemente, Emory University

Reproductive coercion may cause unplanned pregnancies. This paper evaluates three potential sources of coercion --- economic factors, emotional abuse, and physical abuse --- in adolescent women’s contraception and pregnancies. Data is from an HIV prevention intervention with African-American adolescent women in urban Atlanta surveyed at baseline (n=715), 6 months (n=607), and 12 months (n=605). Analysis used Poisson regression with outcomes of pregnancy and unprotected sex to obtain incidence rate ratios. Physically abused women were 45% more likely not to use contraception and women whose boyfriends were their primary sources of spending money, had jobs, or emotionally abused them were more than 20% more likely not to use contraception. Women whose boyfriends were their primary source of spending money and who had jobs were more likely to be pregnant at the following wave, but physical abuse was less predictive. Subsequent research will use matched sampling methods to minimize confounding.