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Purpose: Reproductive autonomy is associated with educational attainment, advanced employment, and wellbeing. While U.S. Latinas use contraception to control their own childbearing and have reported a desire to do so, they often use it inconsistently and have the lowest rates of contraceptive use of any group. Reasons previously cited for why Latinas do not use contraception compared with non-Latino white women include lack of access, lack of knowledge, language barriers, emphasis on large families, machismo, and religiosity. These reasons are often overly simplistic and can lead to widespread generalizations about Latinas. Methods: Using focus groups and semistructured interviews from November 2014 through June 2015, this study describes the family planning perspectives and experiences of 16 Latinas living in Baltimore and recruited from two federally qualified health centers. A social determinant of health framework was used to guide identification of important concepts and explain findings. Results: Results demonstrated that respondents reported contraceptive agency and claimed autonomy over their bodies; described a sense of responsibility and often expressed caution about having families too large to care for; expressed educational and career aspirations; and perceived contraception as critical for the postponement of childbearing to achieve their goals. Conclusion: The patient/provider encounter should include communication that recognizes all patient preferences and lived experiences to support vulnerable and/or marginalized Latinas in their desires to control their own childbearing and life choices.

Social media adds to the pressure of a perfect marriage

Kirsten Stoebenau and Sangeetha Madhavan examine impact of economic inequality through NICHD R03

U.S. lags behind in terms of maternal mortality rate

We examine change across U.S. cohorts born between 1920 and 2000 in their probability of having had sex with same-sex partners in the last year and since age 18. Using data from the 1988–2018 General Social Surveys, we explore how trends differ by gender, race, and class background. We find steep increases across birth cohorts in the proportion of women who have had sex with both men and women since age 18, whereas increases for men are less steep. We suggest that the trends reflect an increasingly accepting social climate, and that women’s steeper trend is rooted in a long-term asymmetry in gender change, in which nonconformity to gender norms is more acceptable for women than men. We also find evidence that, among men, the increase in having had sex with both men and women was steeper for black than for white men, and for men of lower socioeconomic status; we speculate that the rise of mass incarceration among less privileged men may have influenced this trend.

Although past studies have shown an association between union instability (i.e., change in family structure) and children’s aggressive behaviors, the mechanism by which this occurs is less understood. This study ( N  = 3,387) examined whether father and mother involvement, coparenting support, and maternal responsiveness explained the association between union instability in early life and children’s aggressive behaviors at 9 years, and whether relationship status moderated this association. Findings reveal that only coparenting support mediated this association and only for children whose mothers divorced (not for mothers who experienced a nonmarital separation), suggesting that when a divorce occurs, the relationship between partners (coparenting) is more important than the relationship with children (parenting) for children’s social adjustment.

Americans still reluctant to use the pronoun "she" to describe the president, even hypothetically

A recent analysis from the Turnaway study focused on women who were just under the gestational limit of a clinic and received an abortion and those who had first trimester abortions to examine trends in decisional rightness and negative and positive emotions over 5 years after the abortion. Specifically, Rocca et al. (in press) analyzed these data and found that women were overwhemingly sure of their decision: 95% felt their decision was the right one at each assessment after their abortion, and the predicted probability of abortion being the right decision was 99% at 5 years afterwards. Relief was the most common emotion felt by women, and negative emotions or decision regret did not emerge over time. These results and others from studies conducted globally counter assertions by abortion opponents that women are not certain of their decisions, or that women regret or have mainly negative emotions about their abortions if not in the short run then after a long period of time. This commentary addresses not only these findings but also relevant U.S. abortion policies based on these unsubstantiated claims. Policies should not be based on the notions that women are unsure of their decision, come to regret, it or have negative emotions because there is no evidence to support these claims.

Divorce has become more acceptable, less stigmatized, but also less common

No evidence found on women’s negative emotions following an abortion