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sexual and contraceptive attitudes and behaviour of single attenders at a Dublin family planning clinic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Eimer Philbin Bowman
Eimer Philbin Bowman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Trinity College, Dublin
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Summary

A preliminary breakdown of the characteristics of all new attenders at a Dublin family planning clinic during the first 6 months of 1974, showed that just under half of those attending were unmarried at the time of their first visit. Of these single women, three in five planned to marry shortly and two in five had no marriage plans. The main part of the study concentrates on this latter group. A sample of 50 women was interviewed and the results provide some factual data on their family and educational background, their sexual and contraceptive behaviour and their attitudes to related issues. They came mainly from upper-middle income groups and had a high standard of education. Although they were, almost without exception, born into Roman Catholic families, only just over a quarter were regular church attenders. All but 6% were already sexually experienced at the time of their first visit and most were now involved in a stable sexual relationship which involved having intercourse at least once a month; while well informed on contraception, only a small minority had always used a reliable method. Since the mean interval between first intercourse and their first visit to the clinic was over 2.2 years, the majority had been at risk of becoming pregnant. One in six of those interviewed had experienced pregnancy and half of these had sought an abortion. While 76% of the sample considered abortion acceptable in at least extreme cases, only 12% were without strong moral reservations; in the event of pregnancy 32% would consider seeking an abortion. A correlational analysis of some of the results is presented.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , October 1977 , pp. 429 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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