The effect of marital dissolution on contraceptive protection
Bumpass, L.; Rindfuss, R.R.
Family Planning Perspectives 16(6): 271-274
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0014-7354 PMID: 6519239 DOI: 10.2307/2134917Document Number: 396428
An analysis of data from the 1973 and 1976 National Surveys of Family Growth indicates that although marital disruption effects contraceptive practice, the patterns of contraceptive behavior among separated women who remain sexually active are very similar to those of women who remain married. The strategy of this study was to select a reference month (R) randomly from the monthly histories of women who were married throughout the observation period. This resulted in a set of reference months that are distributed in approximately the same fashion as the months in which the separations occurred. At the reference point, the study groups consisted of 1232 women about to separate and 14,237 women who would remain married. The number of cases declined with increasing distance from R; nonetheless, the estimates are remarkably stable over time. Between 1 month before separation and 4 month later (R+3), the proportion of separated women not exposed increase from 7 to 24%. However, during the same period, there is only a minor decline in the proportion of separated women who remain protected by pill use, and virtually no decline in the proportion sexually active and using the IUD. The proportion of separated women who were protected against pregnancy by use of these 2 methods dropped remarkably little--from 43% at R-3 to 37% at R+3. Women about to separate rely less on barrier methods than do continuously married women, and this pattern persists after separation. Whereas 87% of the continuously married continue to use these methods for the period in question, only 33% of separated women do so. It is likely that coitus related methods are less frequently used because they require cooperation between the spouses. In addition, coitus-related methods are probably used less after separation because these methods are less effective, and unintended pregnancies are less desirable in the intermarital or postseparation period. A marked reduction in protection by male sterilization occurs following separation. 75% of separated women, compared with 85% of married women, continued to use the pill after the reference month. As might be expected, both before and after the separation, women who experience marital dissolution are less likely than the continuously married women to be sexually active, 22% compared with 2%. The difference is greater after separation, but the major finding is the similarity of separated and continuously married women with respect to both coitus and contraceptive protection.