Contraceptive Orientation in Young Inner-City Adolescents: A Discriminant Analysis

Abstract

The results of a discriminant analysis on sexual knowledge and attitudes are reported for a sample of 265 Black inner-city adolescents divided according to their contraceptive orientation. Twenty-one percent (56) of the sample stated that they would have sexual intercourse without using any kind of birth control. This group did not differ from their 209 contraceptively oriented peers on knowledge of human sexuality, self-esteem or orientation toward the future, but differed significantly on three attitudinal dimensions directly related to sexual intercourse. Eighty-one percent of the sample of young adolescents was correctly classified according to their contraceptive orientation based on the linear discriminant function identified in the analysis (accounting for 38.4% of the variance). The findings are discussed in the context of peer pressure and familial factors which may alter a young adolescent's intentions to engage in contraceptively protected intercourse.