A Web-Based Event History Calendar Approach for Measuring Contraceptive Use Behavior.

Event history calendars (EHCs) are frequently used in social measurement to capture important information about the time ordering of events in people's lives, and enable inference about the relationships of the events with other outcomes of interest. To date, EHCs have primarily been designed for face-to-face or telephone survey interviewing, and few calendar tools have been developed for more private, self-administered modes of data collection. Web surveys offer benefits in terms of both self-administration, which can reduce social desirability bias, and timeliness.

Changes in pregnancy desire after a pregnancy scare in a random sample of young adult women in a Michigan county.

Objectives: We examined whether and how long young women became more or less likely to desire a pregnancy after experiencing a "pregnancy scare."

Study Design: We used data from the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study, based on a random, population-based sample of 992 young women from a county in Michigan. They were interviewed weekly for 2.

The utility of a follow-up interview for respondents to a longitudinal survey with frequent measurement.

Social processes that change quickly are difficult to study, because they require frequent survey measurement. Weekly, daily, or even hourly measurement may be needed depending on the topic. With more frequent measurement comes the prospect of more complex patterns of missing data.

Using life history calendars to improve measurement of lifetime experience with mental disorders.

Background: Retrospective reports of lifetime experience with mental disorders greatly underestimate the actual experiences of disorder because recall error biases reporting of earlier life symptoms downward. This fundamental obstacle to accurate reporting has many adverse consequences for the study and treatment of mental disorders. Better tools for accurate retrospective reporting of mental disorder symptoms have the potential for broad scientific benefits.

Contraceptive Desert? Black-White Differences in Characteristics of Nearby Pharmacies.

Objectives: Race differences in contraceptive use and in geographic access to pharmacies are well established. We explore race differences in characteristics of nearby pharmacies that are likely to facilitate (or not) contraceptive purchase.

Study Design: We conducted analyses with two geocode-linked datasets: (1) the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) project, a study of a random sample of 1003 women ages 18-19 living in a county in Michigan in 2008-09; and (2) the Community Pharmacy Survey, which collected data on 82 pharmacies in the county in which the RDSL study was conducted.

The Dynamics of Intimate Partner Violence and the Risk of Pregnancy during the Transition to Adulthood.

Using a reproductive coercion framework, we investigate the role of intimate partner violence (IPV) in pregnancy during the transition to adulthood. We use two types of data from a population-based sample of 867 young women in a Michigan county: a 60-minute survey interview with 2.5 years of weekly follow-up surveys, and semi-structured interviews with a subsample of 40 pregnant women.

Pregnancy scares and change in contraceptive use.

Objective: We examined whether the experience of a "pregnancy scare" is related to subsequent changes in contraceptive use that increase the risk of unintended pregnancy.

Methods: We used data from the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study, which interviewed a random, population-based sample of 1003 young women weekly for 2.5 years.

Physical Intimate Partner Violence and Contraceptive Behaviors Among Young Women.

Background: Understanding the link between physical intimate partner violence (IPV) and contraception is key to preventing unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

Materials And Methods: Data from the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life study, a longitudinal study of a racially and socioeconomically diverse population-representative random sample of 18- to 19-year-old women residing in a Michigan county in 2008-2009 and followed weekly through 2011-2012, were used. Logistic regression models of contraceptive behaviors on temporally specific measures of physical violence victimization: recent, history in the current relationship, and history in prior relationships were conducted among 711 women.

MEDIATION MODELS OF PREGNANCY DESIRES AND UNPLANNED PREGNANCY IN YOUNG, UNMARRIED WOMEN.

This paper examines the proposition that sexual and contraceptive behaviours mediate the relationship between the pregnancy desires of young, unmarried women and their having an unplanned pregnancy. The sample consisted of 854 18- to 19-year-old women living in Michigan, USA. First, the positive and negative pregnancy desires of these women were measured, as were the women's perceptions of the positive and negative desires of their sexual partners.

Participation in an Intensive Longitudinal Study with Weekly Web Surveys Over 2.5 Years.

Background: Technological advances have made it easier for researchers to collect more frequent longitudinal data from survey respondents via personal computers, smartphones, and other mobile devices. Although technology has led to an increase in data-intensive longitudinal studies, little is known about attrition from such studies or the differences between respondents who complete frequently administered surveys in a timely manner, and respondents who do not.

Objective: We examined respondent characteristics and behaviors associated with continued and on-time participation in a population-based intensive longitudinal study, using weekly web-based survey interviews over an extended period.

Maximizing Data Quality using Mode Switching in Mixed-Device Survey Design: Nonresponse Bias and Models of Demographic Behavior.

Conducting survey interviews on the internet has become an attractive method for lowering data collection costs and increasing the frequency of interviewing, especially in longitudinal studies. However, the advantages of the web mode for studies with frequent re-interviews can be offset by the serious disadvantage of low response rates and the potential for nonresponse bias to mislead investigators. Important life events, such as changes in employment status, relationship changes, or moving can cause attrition from longitudinal studies, producing the possibility of attrition bias.

Effects of intensive longitudinal data collection on pregnancy and contraceptive use.

We use an experiment based on the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study of sexual behavior, pregnancy, and contraceptive use to investigate whether participation in weekly self-reports over one year result in differential effects on related behaviors and attitudes, compared to participation in a one-time follow-up interview requiring retrospective self-reporting for the prior year. We randomly assigned 200 subjects to either a control group or a journal group. All subjects were interviewed at the beginning of the study (baseline interview) and 12 months later (closeout interview).

Young women's perceptions and experiences with contraception supply in community pharmacies.

Background: Unintended pregnancy is a major public health problem in the United States.Correct contraceptive use can reduce the rate of unintended pregnancy. Community pharmacies are well positioned to provide contraceptives and advice about contraception.

Black-White Differences in Attitudes Related to Pregnancy Among Young Women.

In this article, we use newly available data from the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study to compare a wide range of attitudes related to pregnancy for 961 black and white young women. We also investigate the extent to which race differences are mediated by, or net of, family background, childhood socioeconomic status (SES), adolescent experiences related to pregnancy, and current SES. Compared with white women, black women generally have less positive attitudes toward young nonmarital sex, contraception, and childbearing, and have less desire for sex in the upcoming year.

Pregnancy scares and subsequent unintended pregnancy.

Background: A substantial number of young women experience pregnancy scares - thinking they might be pregnant, and later discovering that they are not. Although pregnancy scares are distressing events, little is known about who experiences them and whether they are important to our understanding of unintended pregnancy.

Objective: We describe the young women who experience pregnancy scares, and examine the link between pregnancy scares and subsequent unintended pregnancy.

Social discrimination, stress, and risk of unintended pregnancy among young women.

Purpose: Prior research linking young women's mental health to family planning outcomes has often failed to consider their social circumstances and the intersecting biosocial mechanisms that shape stress and depression as well as reproductive outcomes during adolescence and young adulthood. We extend our previous work to investigate relationships between social discrimination, stress and depression symptoms, and unintended pregnancy among adolescent and young adult women.

Methods: Data were drawn from 794 women aged 18-20 years in a longitudinal cohort study.

Stress symptoms and frequency of sexual intercourse among young women.

Introduction: We have previously documented the relationships between stress and depression symptoms and adolescent women's nonuse and misuse of condoms and other contraceptive methods and on their unintended pregnancy rates.

Aim: Here, we examine relationships between mental health symptoms and another understudied adolescent reproductive health behavior-frequency of sexual intercourse.

Main Outcome Measure: Our outcome was weekly sexual intercourse activity.

The risk of unintended pregnancy among young women with mental health symptoms.

Depression and stress have been linked with poor contraceptive behavior, but whether existing mental health symptoms influence women's subsequent risk of unintended pregnancy is unclear. We prospectively examined the effect of depression and stress symptoms on young women's pregnancy risk over one year. We used panel data from a longitudinal study of 992 U.

New strategies for biosample collection in population-based social research.

This paper aims to increase understanding of the methodological issues involved in adding biomeasures to social research by investigating the potential of an event-triggered, self-collection technique for monitoring biological response to social events. We use data from the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study, which collected saliva samples triggered by a life event important to the aims of the study - the end of a romantic relationship. Our investigation found little evidence that those who complied in the biosample collection were different from those who did not comply in terms of key study measures and sociodemographic characteristics.

The effects of ambivalent fertility desires on pregnancy risk in young women in the USA.

Many different definitions of the construct of motivational ambivalence have appeared in the literature on reproductive health. Using a theoretical framework in which motivational ambivalence is defined as an interaction between positive and negative pregnancy desires, we propose two hypotheses. The first is that positive and negative pregnancy desires independently predict the risk of an unplanned pregnancy.

Willingness to Participate in Research during Pregnancy: Race, Experience, and Motivation.

This paper examines the willingness of pregnant women to participate in research on health. We investigate attitudes toward multiple methods of data collection including survey and biomarker data collection. Complete interviews were obtained from a sample of 90 pregnant women in a matched control-comparison study of patients receiving prenatal care in private practice and clinic settings.

Design and implementation of an online weekly journal to study unintended pregnancies.

In this article we describe new research to investigate unintended pregnancies during the transition to adulthood. The Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study begins with a 60-minute in-person interview about family background and current relationship characteristics. At the conclusion of the interview, respondents are enrolled in an ongoing journal, which consists of a 5-minute survey via web or phone and occurs weekly for 2.