1. Young People’s Attitudes Towards Unprotected Sex and Pregnancy
Honor Young
PhD Student
University of Wales Institute, Cardiff

2. Health Psychology
Using psychological principles to promote changes in people's attitudes, behaviour and thinking about health (BPS, 2011)
A persons’ attitudes, beliefs, motivation and intentions influence their behaviour (BPS, 2010)

3. Attitudes towards Unprotected Sex and Pregnancy
Past research
Costs and benefits of sexual intercourse and pregnancy (Deptula et al., 2006; Herrman, 2008).
Motivation to avoid pregnancy (Brown and Guthrie, 2010; Jaccard et al, 2003)
Sex education and knowledge (Burack, 2000; Stephenson, 2004)
Social context (Arai, 2007)

4. The Theory of Planned Behaviour
Behavioural Beliefs
Attitude
Intention
Behaviour
Normative Beliefs
Subjective Norm
Control Beliefs
Perceived Behavioural Control
The Theory of Planned Behaviour
Ajzen, I. (1991). The Theory of Planned Behaviour. Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes. 50,

5. My PhD Research
Phase 1: Conducted 5 in-depth pilot interviews

6. Matter of Fact Consequences
Attitudes
Attitude
Behavioural Belief
Negative Outcomes
Positive Outcomes
Matter of Fact Consequences
Liklihood of Outcomes

7. Perceived Behavioural Control
Control Belief
Factors facilitating / inhibiting behaviour
Strength and frequency of control factors
Actual Behavioural Control

8. Subjective Norms Subjective Norms Normative Belief
Perceived Behaviour of important others
Important others approval of behaviour
Extent of important others approval
Motivation to Comply

9. Perceived Behaviour of Important Others
“I dunno, just like the majority of my friends are either pregnant or they have got kids, like my mate, she got two kids … when I meet new people they’re like ‘got any kids?’” “I look at her, and when she had her baby, I must admit I did be like, I want a baby, because she was one of my friends and like one of my close friends”
Amy, age 16

10. Important Others Approval of Behaviour
“Well my sister and my mum and that think I’m gunna have a baby before I’m 18. ‘Cos of the people I have around with, they’re the type of people that you look at ‘em, and you think that they would like … Yeah, like the boy I’m with now, he’s like how come you haven’t got no kids now, ‘cos he’s me my friends”
Amy, age 16

11. Extent of Important Others Approval
“At first they were shocked. They umm, I suppose they didn’t, they weren’t really talking to me or nothing, but then I give ‘em a couple of days like and they were fine then”
Sarah, Mother at 19

12. Motivation to Comply
“If anything my mum kinda went on all the time about using protection. So if anything, I let my mum down”
James, father at 18
He just told me everything about it [contraception] and like it’s just kinda like, I looked up to him like a brother and I didn’t wanna piss him off if you know what I mean”
Dominic, age 17

13. My PhD Research
Phase 2: Questionnaires to adolescents (age parents/non-parents)
Phase 3: In depth interviews and focus groups

14. Outcomes Identify recurrent themes/factors which motivate behaviour
Inform the development of more focussed health-behaviour interventions targeting teenagers’ attitudes and beliefs

15. Honor Young (PhD Student)
Supervisors: Dr Caroline Limbert,
Dr Jenny Mercer, Dr Katie Thirlaway

16. References
Arai, l. (2007). Peer and neighbourhood influences on teenage pregnancy and fertility. Qualitative findings from research in English communities. Health and Place
Armitage, C. and Conner, M. (2001). Efficacy of the Theory of Planned Behaviour: A meta-analytic review. The British Journal of Social Psychology, 40:
Bayley, J., Brown, K. and Wallace, L. (2009). Teenagers and emergency contraception in the UK: A focus group study of salient beliefs using concepts from the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care, 14(3):
BPS (2011). Health Psychology. What is Health Psychology? Retrieved 20/1/11 (2011)
BPS (2010). Response to the Department for Children, Schools and Families consultation: Teenage Pregnancy Strategy: Beyond – 10.
Brown, S. and Guthrie, K. (2010). Why don’t teenagers use contraception? A qualitative interview study. The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care

17. References Continued.
Burack, R. (2000). Young teenagers’ attitudes towards general practitioners and their provision of sexual health care. British Journal of General Practice
Deptula, D., Henry, D., Shoeny, M. and Slavick, J. (2006). Adolescent sexual behaviour and attitudes: A costs and benefits approach. Journal of Adolescent Health
Herrman, J. (2008). Adolescent perceptions of teen births. Journal of Obstetric, Gynaecologic, and Neonatal Nursing. 37,
Jaccard, J., Dodge, T. and Dittus, P. (2003). Do adolescents want to avoid pregnancy? Attitutdes toward pregnancy as predictors of pregnancy. Journal of Adolescent Health
Reineck, J., Schmidt, P. and Aizen, I. (1996).. Application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to adolescent condom use: A panel study. The Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 26 (9):
Stephenson et al. (2004). Pupil-led sex education in England (RIPPLE study) cluster-randomised intervention trial. The Lancet