"Real Men Don’t Use Condoms”: How Levels of Social Influence Affect Male Contraceptive Attitudes
Presenter(s)
Elizabeth Rodericks, Valerie Graveline, Alicia Murphy, Cristina Dudziak
Theme
Gender, sexuality, and/or LGBTQ+ rights
Abstract or Description
Due to historical lack of research, it is imperative that psychological research regarding contraception be reevaluated to include investigation of attitudes toward new methods of male contraception. The overall purpose of this study is to examine attitudes toward male contraceptives among a sexually and ethnically diverse population in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of these varying attitudes. Participants were recruited through the Bridgewater State University SONA system and various social media platforms for virtual interviews regarding their perceptions of the need for and their attitudes toward multiple new male contraceptives. All interviews were transcribed, and the transcripts have been coded using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). After analysis, we have found these themes: the influence of mental health, fear of pregnancy, and self-protection at the individual level, the influence of relationship status, empathy, and communication interpersonally, and a perceived gender divide in responsibility for contraception as well as social pressure and sexual education at the societal level. From the participants recruited from outside of SONA, we have found novel perspectives in terms of positionality towards male contraceptives. Racial stereotypes about sexual promiscuity and lack of responsibility towards pregnancy was a topic of concern, as well as doubt over cisgender men accepting hormonal gel contraceptives due to a transgender participant’s experience with the negative side-effects of hormonal therapy. Levels of individual, interpersonal, and societal social influence are crucial factors in male contraceptive attitudes. By including perspectives from ethnic minority and LGBTQ individuals in research, we can comprehensively understand society's attitudes by hearing all voices rather than just those deemed to be the norm.
Mentor
Dr. Theresa E. Jackson
Comments
Dr. Hansen-Brown4 years ago
Very interesting! If you were going to do a follow-up study, what research question would you ask next?
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Cristina Dudziak4 years ago
Hi Dr. Hansen-Brown,<br />Thank you for your interest in our project! We appreciate you taking the time to check out our work. If we were to conduct a follow-up study, we would be interested in interviewing older participants to compare whether they have the same fears about long term effects of contraceptives as younger participants. Additionally, we have recently been reworking our interview questions so that they are more applicable to individuals with varying gender identities. Specifically, we wanted to ensure that our protocols were inclusive of LGBTQ+ individuals. We noticed that there is a dearth of psychological research regarding the experiences of trans folks, so we also discussed the possibility of conducting a study that focuses exclusively on the experiences of trans individuals. Some ideas we had for building a more trans-inclusive study were to refer to these new contraceptive methods as Sperm-Targeting Contraceptives, as opposed to male contraceptives, so that we are including trans men and women who might be interested in trying out these methods. We also discussed expanding our definition of contraceptives to include methods of STI prevention, in addition to pregnancy prevention, in order to increase the applicability of our interview questions to individuals whose relationships may not include the possibility of pregnancy.
Madison Walsh4 years ago
I think this is a very interesting topic. I think this points out that sex ed needs to focus more on contraceptives' and how the use of them interrelates to different dynamics within our society. There is also a heavy influence of heteronormative ideas in traditional health classes so expanding the conversation beyond that is crucial as you pointed out. Studies like this if published and relayed to curriculum makers could help move health education in a more healthy and beneficial direction.
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Cristina Dudziak4 years ago
Hi Madison,<br />Thank you for taking a look at our work and for your feedback! I absolutely agree with these points you brought up. It was certainly interesting to note the themes that consistently arose in our interview with participants.
Elizabeth Rodericks4 years ago
Hi Madison, thank you for the insight! Seeing the effect of sexual education on our participants' perspectives was very interesting. Hopefully our study and others' who look for a more diverse set of outlooks on using and accepting contraceptives may eventually be applicable to those initial education settings!
Sarah Dellner4 years ago
Great poster, such an important topic! Nice job!
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Valerie Graveline4 years ago
Thank you, Sarah!!
Elizabeth Rodericks4 years ago
Thank you so much!!
Cali Bloem4 years ago
This was such a fascinating poster to read about! I really liked the addition fo quotes in the results section of the poster, as it helped me to think deeper about attitudes toward contraceptives. Were you surprised by any of the results, or did they fall in line with what you were expecting?
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Elizabeth Rodericks4 years ago
Hi Cali, thank you for taking a look at our work! We saw a great variety of perspectives throughout our interviews, especially once recruitment was focused on getting a more diverse sample. One interesting point is that participants had a lot of different reasons why they may be hesitant (or think others may be hesitant) to try new male contraceptives, whether it was masculinity-risking side effects or the surgical nature of some methods. We were also surprised to see that while many participants agreed that there was a gender divide, there was a varying opinion on which gender was more responsible!
Lia Cocomazzi4 years ago
Great poster! I really like the "Real Men Don't Use Condoms" said by a participant as part of the title. I also enjoyed reading about the "Novel Perspectives" section in the results.
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Vicki Rondeau4 years ago
Your poster looks great and I found the topic and information to be very interesting. I enjoyed the quotes from the different levels, it was interesting to read what people thought of the topic.
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Brianna Najjar4 years ago
This was very interesting . great Job!
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