Are Pregnancy Intentions Associated with Transitions Into and Out of Marriage?
CONTEXT:
In
addition to having associations with health outcomes, pregnancy intentions may
be associated with social outcomes, including marital transitions.
METHODS:
Linked
data from the 2004-2008 Oklahoma Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System
and The Oklahoma Toddler Survey for 2006-2010 on 3,617 women who were married
and 2,123 who were unmarried at conception were used to examine the
relationship between pregnancy intention status (intended, mistimed by less
than two years, mistimed by two or more years, or unwanted) and marital
formation or dissolution by the time of the birth and two years later. Logistic
regression analyses were conducted, and propensity score methods were used to
adjust for confounding characteristics.
RESULTS:
Intention
status was associated with marital transition two years after the birth, but
not between conception and birth. In adjusted models, among women married at
conception, those with a birth resulting from an unwanted pregnancy were more
likely than those with a birth resulting from an intended pregnancy to
transition out of marriage by the time their child was two years old (odds
ratio, 2.2). Among women unmarried at conception, those with a birth following
an unwanted pregnancy were less likely than those with a birth following an
intended pregnancy to marry by the time their child was two (0.5). Births
following mistimed pregnancies were not associated with marital transition.
CONCLUSIONS:
The
findings should motivate researchers to broaden the scope of research on the
consequences of unintended childbearing. Future research should distinguish
between mistimed and unwanted births.
- 1Guttmacher Institute, New York. imaddowzimet@guttmacher.org.
- 2Guttmacher Institute, New York.
- 3Oklahoma Department of Health, Oklahoma City.
- Perspect Sex Reprod Health. 2016 Feb 29. doi: 10.1363/48e8116.
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