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Cognitions and behaviors related to risk for alcohol-exposed pregnancies among young adult women

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Abstract

This study assessed alcohol and sex-related cognitions and behaviors, including alcohol-related sexual expectancies, descriptive norms, and protective behavioral strategies, associated with women’s risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy. A national sample of young adults ages 18–20 years was subset to women who were capable of pregnancy and sexually active (n = 422). The outcome was risk of alcohol-exposed pregnancy as determined by contraceptive status and heavy-episodic drinking. SAS version 9.4 was used to estimate logistic regression models. Alcohol-related sexual expectancies related to enhancement were significantly associated with increased odds of alcohol-exposed pregnancy risk. In contrast, women who reported the use of more safe sex (non-condom related) protective behavioral strategies (e.g., talk to partner about birth control use) were at decreased odds of alcohol-exposed pregnancy risk. Future interventions to reduce the risk of alcohol-exposed pregnancies should consider alcohol-related sexual expectancies and safer sex protective behavioral strategies as leverage points.

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Funding

Data collection and manuscript preparation were supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Grant R01AA021379 awarded to Melissa A. Lewis. The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism or the National Institutes of Health.

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Correspondence to Erika L. Thompson.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the university’s institutional review board and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Thompson, E.L., Litt, D.M., Griner, S.B. et al. Cognitions and behaviors related to risk for alcohol-exposed pregnancies among young adult women. J Behav Med 44, 123–130 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-020-00183-w

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