Contraceptive embarrassment and contraceptive behavior among young single women

The purpose of this paper was to determine factors predictive of contraceptive embarrassment and to determine the relationship of contraceptive embarrassment to contraceptive use among young unmarried females. Contraceptive embarrassment was measured by an 8 item scale. Data were obtained from 265 nonvirgin high school and university females who were currently dating. Using simple multipe regression 30% of the variance of the embarrassment scale was explained, with the most important predictors being parental attitude toward premarital intercouse and sexual guilt. Other significant predictors were attitude to planning ahead to use contraception, perceived difficulty in obtaining contraceptive devices, and peer attitudes toward premarital intercouse. The embarrassment scale had significant correlations with contraceptive use.