Intimate relationship dynamics and women’s expected control over sex and contraception

Abstract

Objective<br/ >We examined whether women’s experiences across and within their intimate relationships affect their expected level of control over sex and contraceptive use.<br/ ><br/ >Study design<br/ >We used data from 648 women ages 18–20 in the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study, which interviewed a random, population-based sample in a Michigan county. We used ordered logistic regression with fixed-effects to control for individual- and relationship-level characteristics.<br/ ><br/ >Results<br/ >We found a u-shaped relationship between intimacy/commitment and expected control, with the lowest expected control in the least intimate/committed and the most intimate/committed relationships, and the highest expected control in the intermediate relationships. Women expected more control in their long-term compared to short-term relationships, and expected control increases over time in a specific relationship. Women also expected less control in their conflictual and/or asymmetric relationships – those with older and/or violent partners, and expected control decreases after experiencing violence or a partner’s non-monogamy.<br/ ><br/ >Conclusions<br/ >Our results are consistent with cross-sectional research suggesting that women in violent relationships experience more reproductive coercion than women in non-violent relationships, but we also found that other aspects of intimate relationships are important determinants of expected control over sex and contraception.<br/ ><br/ >Implications<br/ >Intervention strategies should consider a wider range of intimate relationship characteristics – beyond violence – to improve women’s control of their reproductive behaviors.