Abstract
Although an association between gender equality and contraceptive use has been confirmed among adult samples, few studies have explored this relationship among adolescents. An examination of whether adolescents’ contraceptive use is more prevalent in countries with higher levels of gender equality is needed to fill this gap.
METHODSNationally representative data from 33 countries that participated in the 2013–2014 Health Behaviour in School‐Aged Children study and country‐level measures of gender equality—using the 2014 Global Gender Gap Index—were analyzed. Multilevel multinomial logistic regression analyses were employed to assess associations between gender equality and contraceptive use (condom only, pill only and dual methods) at last intercourse as reported by 4,071 females and 4,110 males aged 14–16.
RESULTSIncreasing gender equality was positively associated with contraceptive use among both males and females. For every 0.1‐point increase on the equality scale, the likelihood of condom use at last intercourse rose (odds ratio, 2.1 for females), as did the likelihood of pill use (6.5 and 9.6, respectively, for males and females) and dual method use (2.1 and 5.6, respectively). Associations with pill use and dual use remained significant after national wealth and income inequality were controlled for. Overall, associations were stronger for females than for males.
CONCLUSIONSMore research is needed to identify potential causal pathways and mechanisms through which gender equality and adolescents’ contraceptive use may influence one another.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 43-53 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 28 Feb 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2019 |
Access to Document
- deLooze_2019_PSRH_Country-level_VoR
Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Guttmacher Institute. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.