Multi-Dimensional Religiosity and Pregnancy-Related Behaviors during the Transition to Adulthood

早孕及导致早孕的行为-阴茎-阴道性交和避孕 不使用-对健康和福祉具有重要的长期后果。在这方面， 在这些行为中的作用;超过一半的美国州要求性教育课程包括强调 关于禁欲，一种基于信仰的避免意外怀孕的方法。 我们建议在现有研究的基础上，使用横截面和大间隔纵向数据集， 这极大地促进了我们对宗教和非宗教青年在 总体怀孕率和相关行为，但不包括动态的详细措施 导致怀孕的行为。我们将使用唯一可用的基于人口的数据集，每周重复一次 阴茎阴道性行为和避孕行为及其发生的亲密关系的测量， 并结合有关宗教信仰、信仰和行为的详细问题。等问题 宗教允许我们在三个领域中构建三种不同宗教虔诚度测量方法：宗教 保守主义（与保守教派的联系，相信圣经是上帝无误的话语）， 外部宗教性（服务参与）和内部宗教性（祈祷，宗教突出）。 我们建议根据一套完整的宗教信仰来估计这些宗教信仰领域的差异。 在整个研究期间的性行为和避孕行为-在亲密伙伴关系中度过的时间， 在每个亲密关系中，第一次阴茎阴道性交的频率， 在性关系发生后，每周是否使用任何避孕方法，包括 阴茎-阴道性交，在每周避孕期间是否使用激素（与性交）方法 使用情况，在数周内是否一直使用避孕套（在阴茎-阴道性交的每次行为中）， 避孕套的使用，以及男性伴侣在每次射精前是否一直撤回阴茎。 使用了一周停药。我们还将分析怀孕率和意外怀孕率， 宗教信仰的差异在多大程度上是由于阴茎-阴道性行为的差异， 使用避孕药的差异，或两者兼而有之。这些分析的综合细节是前所未有的， 我们需要区分宗教信仰影响行为的多种机制，例如 对婚前性行为的保守价值观，对怀孕的恐惧，缺乏阴茎阴道性交的计划， 关于生命起源、社会暴露、社会互动和社会控制的信念。 我们为这些分析提出了理想的合作研究团队。巴伯是原版的私家侦探 RDSL项目，和皮尔斯设计的RDSL基线调查中的宗教信仰措施。其互补 专业知识--巴伯在亲密关系、性行为和避孕措施的使用方面，皮尔斯在宗教方面 和年轻人的宗教信仰，是拟议项目的理想选择。

Young pregnancy and the behaviors that lead to it—penile-vaginal sexual intercourse and contraceptive non-use—have important long-term consequences for health and well-being. Religiosity plays an important role in these behaviors; more than half of U.S. states require that sex education curricula include an emphasis on abstinence, a faith-based approach to avoiding undesired pregnancy. We propose to build on existing research using cross-sectional and large-interval longitudinal datasets, which have dramatically advanced our understanding of how religious and non-religious youth differ in terms of overall pregnancy rates and related behaviors, but do not include detailed measures of the dynamic behaviors that lead to pregnancy. We will use the only available population-based dataset with repeated weekly measures of penile-vaginal sex and contraceptive behaviors and the intimate relationships in which they occur, combined with detailed questions about religious affiliation, beliefs, and behaviors. The questions about religion permit us to construct three distinct measures of religiosity across three domains: religious conservatism (affiliation with a conservative denomination, belief that the bible is the inerrant word of God), external religiosity (service attendance), and internal religiosity (praying, religious salience). We propose to estimate differences across these domains of religiosity in terms of an integrated set of sexual and contraceptive behaviors throughout the study period—time spent in an intimate partnership, time to first penile-vaginal intercourse within each intimate relationship, frequency of penile-vaginal intercourse after a relationship became sexual, whether any contraceptive method was used during each week that included penile-vaginal intercourse, whether a hormonal (vs. coital) method was used during each week of contraceptive use, whether a condom was used consistently (during each act of penile-vaginal intercourse) during weeks of condom use, and whether the male partner consistently withdrew the penis before ejaculation during each week withdrawal was used. We will also analyze pregnancy rates and undesired pregnancy rates and estimate the extent to which differences by religiosity are due to differences in penile-vaginal sexual behavior, differences in contraceptive use, or both. The combined detail of these analyses is unprecedented and will allow us to distinguish among multiple mechanisms through which religiosity influences behavior, such as conservative values about pre-marital sex, fear of pregnancy, lack of planning for penile-vaginal intercourse, beliefs about the beginning of life, social exposure, social interaction, and social control. We propose the ideal collaborative research team for these analyses. Barber was the PI of the original RDSL project, and Pearce designed the religiosity measures in the RDSL baseline survey. Their complementary expertise—Barber’s in intimate relationships, sexual behavior, and contraceptive use, and Pearce’s in religion and religiosity among youth—are ideal for the proposed project.