We examined data from a community sample of rural stimulant users (n = 691) in three diverse states to identify gender and racial/ethnic differences in HIV risk behaviors. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted with six risk behaviors as dependent variables: injecting drugs, trading sex to obtain money or drugs, trading money or…

This fact sheet explores attitudes in Sweden toward sexuality and childbirth from a historical perspective. After describing the strict social control over abortion and contraception in place 100 years ago, and the gradual easing of those controls in response to the low birth rate, the paper goes on to discuss the 1974 Abortion Act, which…

This report summarizes the evidence that family planning can reduce deaths of children under 5 years of age at a reasonable cost. The report also: (1) identifies the major reproductive factors associated with child mortality; (2) estimates the approximate reduction in child mortality that could be achieved through improved childbearing patterns;…

This guide, written for health managers and clinicians, provides information to meet the family planning needs of migrant farmworkers of Mexican culture. The promotion of maternal and child health for migrant farmworker families has brought attention to the incidence of high risk pregnancies among this population. Research indicates that a need…

An evaluation of the reproductive health programs of six diverse school-based clinics measured the impact of the clinics on sexual behavior and contraceptive use. All six clinics served low-income populations; at five of them, the great majority of the students were black. An analysis of student visits by type of care given found that these…

Tested four hypotheses. Two hypotheses were: (a) The levels of knowledge and adoption of family planning are positively related to the frequency of husband-wife communication regarding birth control; (b) interspouse communication increases with level of education. The findings indicate a marked absence of husband-wife communication. (Author)

To combat the problem of teenage pregnancy, public health clinics have made birth control counseling and free contraceptives available to minors and many public schools have implemented sex education programs. Despite the development and implementation of these programs, teenage sexual activity and pregnancy have increased. The increase in…

Unintended pregnancies occur among young people who are sexually active and who do not take sufficient precautions to prevent pregnancy. Two major factors identified as contributing to unintended pregnancy are the lack of knowledge and skill in family planning and inconsistency in use of contraceptives. A pretest-posttest experiment was conducted…

Much of the practice of community health nurses is focused on health promotion. Nurse-client contracting has been used with clients experiencing hypertension, diabetes, or arthritis. A study was conducted to determine whether nurse-client contracting would be useful as a method for providing nursing care to assist sexually active young women to…

This paper describes how to create a teenage theatre project and explains why such a project is effective in educating teenagers. New Image Teen Theatre is a project which has combined peer education and improvisational theater since 1981 to reach teenagers with accurate family planning information, encourage communication, and promote responsible…

The nation's attention must be focused on the growing risk to its teenagers of contracting AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). As part of this effort, the Center for Population Options (CPO) organized a teen AIDS prevention project in Washington, D.C., based on information obtained from four focus groups comprised of 8-12 teens each. The…

This report presents findings based on interviews with three nationally representative samples of currently married women between the ages of 15 and 44 years, as documented in 1965 National Fertility Study and the 1973 and 1976 National Surveys of Family Growth. Statistics from these surveys are presented on the contraceptive practice of…

The American birth control movement was born among radicals, mostly socialist women, early in the twentieth century. Although some information about birth control had circulated in medical journals, books and advertising in the nineteenth century, the passage in 1873 of a federal obscenity law known as the Comstock law resulted in the absence of…

This report, third in a series based on data resulting from the World Fertility Survey (WFS), examines the extent of knowledge and use of contraception in 20 developing countries. The data analyzed in this report indicate that in 19 of the 20 countries (the exception being Nepal), three-quarters or more of the women who are or have been married…

In this report, emphasis is placed on major research developments in the reproductive sciences, their impact on the health of individuals as well as on that of society, and on current trends that may provide new opportunities for future research in fertility and infertility. In the first section, major developments in the reproductive sciences are…