Methodologies for Measuring Pregnancy Intention, and Unintended Pregnancy and BirthVirtual workshop, 13-14 May 2021 The IUSSP Scientific Panel on Abortion Research organized a virtual workshop on methodologies for measuring pregnancy intention and unintended pregnancy and birth. The workshop was held on May 13-14, 2021. The goal was to provide a forum for researchers to discuss new methodologies for measuring pregnancy intention and unintended pregnancy and birth, with the goal of identifying ways to improve measurement of these important constructs. The key objectives of the workshop were to identify advantages and disadvantages of innovative and new methodologies; and, as much as possible, to identify the added value of each of six innovative methodologies by comparison with existing, widely applied approaches.
The presentations highlighted a number of key aspects of fertility preferences and pregnancy intentions each of which may affect outcomes and are therefore important to measure, including: desired timing and number of births; emotional response; ambivalence (mixed attitudes); strength of motivation; flexibility/contingency; temporal stability; and influence of partner (dyadic measures). Differences in data collection approach (e.g., retrospective or prospective measures) and the type of measure (individual level or aggregated/population level) were also discussed. The workshop included presentations on measurement approaches that have been applied in Europe and the United States, in addition to those used in lower- and middle-income countries. See: |
