The association between religiosity and pregnancy acceptability among Latino/a young adults: does generational status matter?

Abstract

The US Latino/a population is considered to be at high risk for unintended pregnancy; some research indicates that Latino/a parents are more likely to express happiness about an unintended pregnancy than other racial/ethnic groups. Associations between pregnancy attitudes and factors such as religiosity and nativity have also been documented in the Latino/a population, but existing research is sparse, dated and primarily focused on women of Mexican heritage. This study sought to expand this literature by examining the relationship between religiosity and pregnancy acceptability and assessing effect modification by generational status and gender in a national sample of young Latino/a cisgender women and men of various ancestral backgrounds currently in relationships. In multivariable logistic regression models, there was a positive association between importance of religion and pregnancy acceptability for both men and women; being highly or moderately religious was associated with elevated odds of finding a pregnancy acceptable. Effect modification by generational status was significant for women, but not for men. Results suggest that religiosity, gender and generational status have differential influences on and relationships to pregnancy orientations for Latina women and Latino men and should be considered in the design and delivery of family planning care for Latino/a clients.

Keywords:

• Unintended pregnancy
• Hispanic Americans
• religion
• generations
• family planning

Acknowledgements

The research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the US National Institutes of Health under Award Number R00HD070874. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the US National Institutes of Health.

The authors extend their thanks to Brenda Eskenazi, Maureen Lahiff, Lauren Hunter, Lauren Caton, Rachel Crowley, Maggie Downey, Julia Hernández and Sophie Lyons for providing invaluable feedback on this manuscript. Allison L. Rodriguez is now a clinical psychotherapist at WestCoast Children's Clinic in Oakland, CA, USA. The work in this manuscript is not affiliated with her current employer.

Requests for further information regarding the study procedures and findings can be directed to the senior author [AMG] at [email protected]. The data are not publicly available due to human subjects’ privacy restrictions.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no competing interests.

Notes

1 We use the term ‘Latino/a’ in this paper to refer to people of Latin American or Spanish descent and people who self-identified in our survey as ‘Latino’, ‘Latina’ or ‘Hispanic’. It should be noted that we make no distinction in this paper between individuals whose ancestry is in the Americas and individuals whose ancestry may be traced to Spanish-speaking countries elsewhere. We use the term ‘Latino/a’ rather than the male-gendered term ‘Latino’ to refer to the entire group in order to avoid contributing to imbalances of power inherent in gendered languages such as Spanish (Salinas and Lozano 2017).