Low-Income Women Describe Fertility-Related Expectations: Descriptive Norms, Injunctive Norms, and Behavior

Abstract

Social norms surrounding sexuality, pregnancy, and childbearing may help guide women's health-related behaviors. In this study, we explore low-income women's perceptions of fertility-related norms by allowing women to describe their experiences with normative expectations. Semistructured interviews (n = 30) suggested that women in low-income subject positions articulate descriptive norms that generally correspond with mainstream descriptive norms, identify two major sources of injunctive norms concerning fertility and sexuality— authoritative and peer-oriented—and often align their behaviors according to subgroup expectations communicated in the form of peer-oriented injunctive norms. We discuss these results in light of the extant literature on social norms.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A previous version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association in May 2009. The authors thank the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering at Purdue University for support of this project. We are also grateful to Lynn Harter and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on earlier versions of this article.