A Couple-Level Approach to Preventing Unintended Pregnancy among Young Latinas

描述（由申请人提供）：Anu Manchikanti Gomez，博士，MSC，是一名公共卫生研究员，也是旧金山弗朗西斯科州立大学性别与性研究中心的博士后研究员。戈麦斯博士的长期职业目标是为年轻男性和女性制定基于伴侣的干预措施，促进健康的关系和避孕药具的使用，特别是在美国的少数民族和移民青年中。此外，她的目标是进行创新的，政策相关的研究，考虑其他环境风险因素对生殖健康不利。NICHD K99/R 00独立之路奖将为Gomez博士提供必要的支持，使其接受在夫妇一级研究意外怀孕决定因素的基本培训，特别是在社会心理学、二元研究方法以及干预和政策制定等领域。这项研究的重点是18-24岁的拉丁妇女和她们的男性伴侣。2001年，美国近一半的怀孕是意外的，拉丁裔妇女的意外生育率最高。此外，年龄在18-24岁之间的年轻女性比任何其他年龄组的女性更有可能经历意外怀孕。由于对夫妻之间的关系动态、文化背景和怀孕意图如何结合联合收割机以减少有效避孕药具的使用缺乏了解，减少拉丁美洲年轻人意外怀孕的努力受到阻碍。拟议的混合方法研究将通过以下方式解决这一差距：（1）确定夫妻关系因素对怀孕意愿的影响;（2）制定一个文化上适当的、夫妻层面的对怀孕意愿的矛盾心理的衡量标准;（3）测试怀孕意愿和关系因素随时间推移与避孕药具使用的关联。预计这项研究将揭示具体到年轻的拉丁妇女和他们的合作伙伴的夫妇层面的关系动态方面，并提供独特的和强大的数据，以告知在未来的干预发展。 公共卫生相关性：因为几乎所有的意外怀孕都涉及一个男人和一个女人，所以从夫妇的角度来审视这个问题至关重要。本研究将探讨如何怀孕的意图和关系因素，如承诺，信任和亲密，影响避孕药具的使用之间的18-24岁的拉丁美洲妇女和他们的男性伴侣。更好地了解夫妇之间的怀孕意愿、文化因素和关系因素将有助于制定促进避孕药具使用的干预措施。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Anu Manchikanti Gomez, PhD, MSC, is a public health researcher and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality at San Francisco State University. Dr. Gomez's long-term career objective is to develop partner-based interventions for young men and women that promote healthy relationships and contraceptive use, especially among minority and immigrant youth in the US. Moreover, she aims to conduct innovative, policy-relevant research that considers other contextual risk factors for adverse reproductive health. The NICHD K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award will provide the necessary support for Dr. Gomez to receive essential training for studying the determinants of unintended pregnancy at the couple level, particularly in the areas of social psychology, dyadic research methods, and intervention and policy development. The proposed research focuses on 18-24-year-old Latina women and their male partners. Nearly half of all pregnancies in the US during 2001 were unintended, with the highest unintended birth rate among Latina women. Moreover, young women between the ages of 18-24 are more likely to experience an unintended pregnancy than any other age group of women. Efforts to decrease unintended pregnancies among young Latinas have been hindered by lack of understanding of how relationship dynamics, cultural context, and pregnancy intentions among couples combine to reduce effective contraceptive use. The proposed, mixed methods research will address this gap by: (1) identifying the influences of a couple's relationship factors on pregnancy intentions; (2) developing a culturally appropriate, couple-level measure of ambivalence towards pregnancy intentions; and (3) testing the association of pregnancy intentions and relationship factors to contraceptive use over time. It is expected that this research will reveal aspects of couple-level relationship dynamics specific to young Latina women and their partners, and provide unique and powerful data to inform the development of an intervention in the future. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Because virtually all unintended pregnancies involve a man and a woman, it is crucial to examine this issue from a couple's perspective. This study will investigate how pregnancy intentions and relationship factors, such as commitment, trust and intimacy, influence contraceptive use among 18-24-year-old Latina women and their male partners. A better understanding of how pregnancy intentions, cultural factors and relationship factors operate within couples will aid in the development of an intervention to promote contraceptive use.