Attitudes toward contraceptive methods among African-American men and women: similarities and differences.

PURPOSE Men's attitudes toward contraceptives are an understudied area, even though many men participate in contraceptive decision making. The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes and perceptions regarding a selection of contraceptive methods among a national sample of African Americans, with a particular focus on gender differences. METHODS Data come from a telephone survey of African Americans (aged 15-44 years) living in the contiguous United States. For the present analyses, the sample was restricted to 152 men and 281 women who reported having had a sexual partner of the opposite gender at some point in their lives. Bivariate analyses compared men and women's ratings of birth control pills, male condoms, female condoms, Norplant, Depo Provera, female sterilization, and male sterilization along several dimensions: bad/good, harmful/beneficial, difficult/easy, dangerous/safe, immoral/moral, and effectiveness. Multiple logistic regressions were performed to determine the association between gender and contraceptive attitudes, adjusting for sociodemographic variables. RESULTS Male condoms were given the most favorable ratings along most dimensions by both African-American men and women. In general, ratings of male condoms, female condoms, and Norplant did not significantly differ by gender. African-American men did, however, give female and male sterilization, birth control pills, and Depo Provera significantly poorer ratings than did African-American women. CONCLUSION African-American men had less favorable evaluations of some contraceptive methods than did African-American women. Further research is needed to examine how such gender differences may play a role in contraceptive decisions.