CONTRACEPTIVE KNOWLEDGE, PRIVATE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS, PRIVATE BODY CONSCIOUSNESS, AND CONTRACEPTIVE PROBLEM SOLVING: AN INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH.
Contributors: New York University.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 183
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.; Education, Educational Psychology.
Description: This was a descriptive study, in which the concept of contraceptive problem solving was tested in relation to contraceptive knowledge, private self-consciousness, and private body consciousness.

Contraceptive problem solving, within an information processing framework, was defined as the process of identifying individual constraints to contraceptive use and selecting a contraceptive method that satisfies those constraints. An instrument, the Contraceptive Problem Solving Test, was developed for this study.

Data were collected from 90 adult women in New Hampshire. Hypotheses tested included: (1) There will be a negative relationship between contraceptive knowledge and contraceptive problem solving. (2) There will be a negative relationship between private self-consciousness and contraceptive problem solving. and (3) Contraceptive knowledge and private self-consciousness together will better predict contraceptive problem solving than either one alone. A research question asked: What is the relationship among contraceptive knowledge, private self-consciousness, and private body consciousness together and contraceptive problem solving?.

Contraceptive problem solving did not relate significantly to contraceptive knowledge nor private self-consciousness. A significant correlation (r = -.17, p $<$.05) was found with private body consciousness.

A score was derived for Contraceptive Difficulty, defined as the total number of constraints indicated by a woman as applicable to her situation, and this was found to relate to contraceptive knowledge (r = -.25, p $<$.009), private self-consciousness (r =.20, p $<$.03), private body consciousness (r =.27, p $<$.005), as well as, mildly, to contraceptive problem solving (r =.16, p $<$.06). Private body consciousness and contraceptive difficulty together explained the most variance in contraceptive problem solving (multiple r =.28, r$\sp2$ =.08).

It is recommended that the study be replicated on a more heterogeneous population, and that further study be made of the Contraceptive Problem Solving Test and the Contraceptive Difficulty Index.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-10, Section: B, page: 4233.

Thesis (PH.D.)--NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, 1988.

School code: 0146.