Parents of teen girls are more ready to accept their daughters being offered birth control pills and condoms during Doctor visits than other, more effective and long-acting contraceptive methods. The more that a parent respects their daughter’s autonomy, the more likely that parent is to accept a Doctor offering their teen any contraceptive.
Among adolescents, rates of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections remain high. Despite increased use of contraceptives by adolescents in the last twenty years, effective methods are still underused and too many sexually active teens do not use condoms to block transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
Parents can help improve contraceptive use among teens. The study explored parents’ attitudes towards seven contraceptive methods their daughters might learn about during a confidential health care visit and examined the factors that influence a parent’s acceptance of different methods.
The study was conducted among 261 parents/caregivers with daughters aged 12 to 17 and completed a phone survey that determined their attitudes towards different contraceptive methods as well as their parenting beliefs. Birth control pills won greatest acceptance (59 percent). In decreasing order of acceptability were condoms (51 percent), injectable contraceptives (46 percent), emergency contraception, also known as the morning-after pill (45 percent), birth control patches (42 percent), implants (32 percent) and intrauterine devices or IUDs (18 percent).
The strongest predictor of acceptability of all methods was parental recognition of their teens’ autonomy. Clinicians can use these findings to educate parents about STDs and longer-acting methods, which are most effective. One reason parents may not accept this method is that parents might associate long acting contraception, like IUDs, with an ongoing sexual relationship.
Disapproval by the parents of long-acting contraceptive methods may also reflect U.S. historical events. IUDs aren’t accepted in the U.S. for many reasons, across all ages, concerning societal attitudes towards medicine and the memory. However, parents need to understand that the risk of pregnancy outweighs the risk of any contraceptive method, including the IUD.
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