Parental gender equality and use of oral contraceptives among young women: A longitudinal, population-based study in Sweden

Abstract

Background:Little is known about how parental gender equality early in their children lives can influence daughters’ decision to use contraceptive pills.Aim:The study aimed at exploring whether maternal working time and paternity leave in Sweden during the first two years of their daughters’ lives is associated with the use of oral contraceptives when they are adolescents or young adults.Materials and Methods:The study population was selected from a cohort of all Swedish fathers and mothers who had their first child together between 1988 and 1989 (n = 57,520 family units). Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the association.Results:Mothers’ longer working time was mildly associated with daughters’ oral contraceptive pill use, though no clear trend was observed. Longer paternity leave periods (>30 days) were not associated with use of oral contraceptives among their daughters, but 1-30 day periods showed a mild positive association.Conclusion:For maternal working time, there seems to be an association, but trends by working hours are not clear. There is no clear association between paternity leave during the first two years of their daughters’ life and the use of oral contraceptives when they are adolescents and young adults.

Country‐Level Gender Equality and Adolescents’ Contraceptive Use in Europe, Canada and Israel: Findings from 33 Countries

“…The observed association between macro‐level gender equality and adolescents’ contraceptive use is consistent with findings from empirical studies that examined adolescents’ contraceptive use and gender equality at an individual or micro level . To our knowledge, ours is the first study to assess the relationship between macro‐level gender equality and adolescents’ contraceptive use.…”

“…The observed association between macro-level gender equality and adolescents' contraceptive use is consistent with findings from empirical studies that examined adolescents' contraceptive use and gender equality at an individual or micro level. [28][29][30][31] To our knowledge, ours is the first study to assess the relationship between macro-level gender equality and adolescents' contraceptive use. Future research should examine the extent to which the association between societal gender equality and contraceptive use among adolescents is mediated by potential mechanisms such as the availability of comprehensive sex education, a universal health care system, the accessibility of youthfriendly health services and egalitarian gender norms.…”

“…Indeed, a review of more than 250 empirical studies concluded that greater female power in a relationship and greater acceptance of nontraditional gender roles for women were associated with increased contraceptive use among adolescents. 28 Moreover, parental gender equality (e.g., maternal working time) has been related to young women' s pill use in Sweden, 29 and young men' s support for gender-equitable norms has been related to increased contraceptive use in Brazil 30 and Canada. 31 Second, countries with high levels of gender equality tend to invest more in comprehensive sex education 32,33 and youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services 34 than countries with lower levels.…”

Parental Gender Expectations by Socioeconomic Status and Nativity: Implications for Contraceptive Use

“…Our results do not mean that household gender expectations have no bearing on future contraceptive practices but rather, consistent with Shearer and colleagues (2005) there are likely complex pathways based on other factors, many that we are unable to capture. Aligned with our overall findings, Rashid & Kader (2014) found that there are complex and varied links between a multitude of gender role attitudes and contraceptive behavior later in life, largely dependent on the particular type of gender role attitudes (i.e. gender based family role attitudes, masculine ideology).…”