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Heini Väisänen and Rachel K. Jones

across many domains. Particularly relevant when it comes to issues of family planning is
that the majority of pregnancies to adolescent and young adult women are unintended, and
this population is also less likely to use contraception consistently. Accordingly, under-
standing changes in fertility motivations and behaviors among this population is important.
Yet researchers should not assume stability, or fail to examine changes in the family plan-
ning behaviors and attitudes of adult women. Childbearing is more normative among adult
women, and patterns of fertility and pregnancy attitudes are likely to be distinctly different,
and perhaps more variable, than those of adolescents and young adults. For example, one
recent study using longitudinal data found that pregnancy avoidance attitudes were
strongly associated with consistent contraceptive use and that this attitude changed for a
majority of adult women over an 18-month time period (Jones, Tapales, Lindberg et al,
2015). Our study is the first to prospectively examine changes in fertility intentions and
pregnancy avoidance attitudes, and the factors associated with these outcomes, among a
national sample of adult U.S. women. While our study period is limited to the relatively
short time period of six months, we find that these outcomes change for non-negotiable
proportions of women.
Following the theory of conjunctural action (TCA) (Johnson-Hanks, Bachrach, Morgan
et al, 2011), we expect women to have different attitudes towards pregnancies at different
stages of their lives, as past fertility and other life events shape the behavior of individuals.
Furthermore, the theory implies that women’s reproductive behavior differs depending on
their social class: women with low education more often start childbearing before marriage
or stable employment than women with high education. Thus, examining whether change
in short-term fertility goals and attitudes is associated with socio-demographic characteris-
tics and changes in these circumstances, is of interest. We tested whether pregnancy atti-
tudes changed in response to change in relationship or employment status, or whether
background characteristics such as age, education, number and age of children, and
race/ethnicity were associated with these attitudes.

2. Data and Methods
Data for this analysis come from Continuity and Change in Contraceptive Use (CCCU)
Study, which was administered online to a national sample of women aged 18–39. To best
capture women at risk of pregnancy, the sample only included women who ever had va-
ginal sex with a man, were not pregnant, and who herself or whose main male sexual
partner had not been sterilized. In late 2012, 11,365 women were invited to participate;
6,658 (59 percent) answered the four screening items; 4,634 were eligible and completed
the survey. A subsequent survey was conducted with the same women six months later,
and 69 percent participated. Women who dropped out were younger (average age 28 rather
than 29 among those who participated), less educated (32 percent had a college degree
compared to 46 percent among those who stayed), less often White (57 percent vs. 66 per-
cent) and childless (44 percent vs 52 percent). In this paper we study the 3,041 women
who participated in both waves and were not pregnant at Wave 2.
We examine two outcome measures: whether women were trying to get pregnant and
how much they wanted to avoid pregnancy. All women were asked, “Which of the follow-
ing best describes your current plans regarding having a(nother) baby?” One of the re-
sponse categories was “I am trying to get pregnant now.” Respondents were classified ac-
cording to “never tried,” “constantly trying,” “stopped trying” (women who first reported
trying, but were not trying at follow-up)and the opposite cases as “started trying.”
Respondents were also asked,“How important is it to you to AVOID becoming pregnant
now?” and provided with a 6-point scale where 1 indicated “not at all important” and 6

International Journal of Population Studies | 2015, Volume 1, Issue 1 111