Gravid students. Characteristics of nongravid classmates who react with positive and negative feelings about conception
C. Stevens-Simon and C. Boyle
Division of Adolescent Medicine, University of Colorado Health Science Center, Denver.
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether gravid classmates affect nongravid
students' feelings about conception. METHOD: Cross-sectional survey of a
school-based clinic population. We asked 130 nulliparous high school
students who were seeking routine health care at an urban school-based
clinic to complete an anonymous questionnaire concerning risk factors for
and attitudes about teen pregnancy. RESULTS: The respondents were grouped
according to the effect that contact with gravid classmates had on their
desire for conception: increased desire (n = 13), no change in desire (n =
59), and decreased desire (n = 49). The analysis disclosed no significant
group differences for age (mean +/- SD, 16.3 +/- 1.2 years), sex (65%
female), welfare use (20%), or living situation (85% lived with a parent).
The increased-desire group had significantly more sociodemographic risk
factors for teen pregnancy than did the groups with no change and decreased
desire. The group with increased desire was significantly more likely than
the other two groups to be failing in school (54% vs 44% and 12.2%; P <
.001), to have low education goals (15.4% vs 3.4% and 0%; P = .02), to be
unhappy with their family support (69.2% vs 27.1% and 29.8%; P = .01), to
be concerned about sterility (30.8% vs 8.6% and 6.1%; P = .03), not to be
using contraceptives (77% vs 35.6% and 30.6%; P < .01), to want a
pregnancy within 2 years (61.5% vs 25.4% and 12.2%; P < .001), and to
have a sexual partner who wanted a pregnancy within 2 years (61.5% vs 13.6%
and 8.2%; P < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support the study
hypothesis that that never-pregnant students in the increased-desire group
had more sociodemographic risk factors for teen pregnancy than did students
in the groups with no change or decreased desire. The results of this study
may help to ally concerns about the adverse effect that the increased
prevalence of gravid students in American schools might have on the
childbearing attitudes of never-pregnant students.
