Predictive power of perceived self-efficacy on application of contraceptives and locus of control on pregnancy intention amongst women of reproductive age in Tabriz

Abstract

Introduction: The perceived self-efficacy of women and their locus of control regarding the application of contraceptives along with the background individual and social attributes are considered as important determinants of success in use of contraception devices and methods. Accurate measurement of the level of perceived self-efficacy in use of contraceptives and locus of behavioral control over pregnancy intention could enable prediction of contraceptives use output in women of child bearing age and their success in pregnancy planning. Therefore, the perceived self-efficacy and locus of control in use of contraceptives may be utilized coincidently to predict the complications of unwanted pregnancies, such as infectious abortions etc. The present study was aimed to determine the predictive power of perceived self-efficacy in the use of contraceptives and the behavioral locus of control for the pregnancy intention in women of reproductive age residing in Tabriz, Iran. Materials and Methods: The descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 400 women of reproductive age (15-49 years old) who had been recruited using random stratified sampling method and based on the one to five ratio of urban to rural number of accepted women. This study location was the 29th Bahman Hospital in Tabriz, Iran and data collection was performed from June to August 2018. A few questions to collect the required demographic data, the contraceptive self-efficacy scale (CSE), the researcher-developed multidimensional contraception locus of control (MCLC) inventory and the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP) (its psychometric validity and reliability has previously been verified in Iran) were applied for data collection purposes. The validity and reliability of the Persian translated CSE and also MCLC questionnaires were examined and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis outputs were used to corroborate the structural validity of the CSE and MCLC questionnaires. Results: The mean score of the perceived self-efficacy of women of reproductive age on the use of contraceptives was 56.7 (in the score range of 17-85). The highest mean score regarding the locus of control in application of contraceptives by women of reproductive age was achieved in the subscale of the behavioral control on the pregnancy intention (21.4). About 82.3% of the participants obtained the highest score of this subscale which had a significant relationship with the number of children (P=0.018), pregnancy intentions of women (P<0.001), and pregnancy intentions of men (P <0.001). But the perceived contraceptive self-efficacy indicated no significant relationship with the behavioral intention (P=0.12), the influence of others on pregnancy control (P<0.05), and attitude towards the controllability of pregnancy (P=0.2).

Conclusion: Based on the study findings perceived contraceptive self-efficacy alone could not predict pregnancy intention in the studied women due to their dependency in decision making about childbearing on certain external factors. Therefore, by empowering the behavioral control of women of reproductive age for pregnancy intention, prevention of unplanned pregnancies and also consequent possible high-risk behaviors such as elective abortions could be attainable.