Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Despite concern with sex-related topics, such as fertility and family life, demographers have rarely addressed sex in their research and theorizing, except when studying adolescents. Consequently, the models demographers use to understand fertility decision-making have operated under the assumption that “coital frequency” is nothing more than a “proximate determinant” of fertility. The theoretical position of this paper is that sex (not merely defined as “coital frequency”) is actually a key determinant of fertility and subsequent fertility decision-making. However, I argue that the influence of sex on fertility decision-making is slightly different in short- and long-term relationships; this paper focuses on the influence of sex in contraceptive decision-making in long-term relationships. I conduct multinomial regression analyses using data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to demonstrate that previous contraceptive use in a relationship affects and predicts current contraceptive use in that relationship. Moreover, I show that these effects differ by the type of method used, with a contrast between barrier and hormonal methods, and that the sexual context matters for women of all ages, not just adolescents.