Religious Variations in Perceived Infertility and Inconsistent Contraceptive Use Among Unmarried Young Adults in the United States

ORCID

Haynes: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1408-9291

MSU Affiliation

College of Arts and Sciences; Department of Sociology

Creation Date

2026-06-01

Abstract

Purpose In this paper, we examine associations among personal religiosity, perceived infertility, and inconsistent contraceptive use among unmarried young adults (ages 18-29). Methods The data for this investigation came from the National Survey of Reproductive and Contraceptive Knowledge (n = 1,695). We used multinomial logistic regression to model perceived infertility, adjusted probabilities to model rationales for perceived infertility, and binary logistic regression to model inconsistent contraceptive use. Results Evangelical Protestants were more likely than non-affiliates to believe that they were infertile. Among the young women who indicated some likelihood of infertility, evangelical Protestants were also more likely than their other Protestant or non-Christian faith counterparts to believe that they were infertile because they had unprotected sex without becoming pregnant. Although evangelical Protestants were more likely to exhibit inconsistent contraception use than non-affiliates, we were unable to attribute any portion of this difference to infertility perceptions. Conclusions Whereas most studies of religion and health emphasize the salubrious role of personal religiosity, our results suggest that evangelical Protestants may be especially likely to hold misconceptions about their fertility. Because these misconceptions fail to explain higher rates of inconsistent contraception use among evangelical Protestants, additional research is needed to understand the principles and motives of this unique religious community. © 2014 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved.

Publication Date

1-2-2014

Publication Title

Journal of Adolescent Health

Publisher

Elsevier

First Page

704

Last Page

709

Rights

© 2014 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine

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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.11.002