Abortion outcome as a function of sex-role identification.

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship between sex-role identification and abortion outcome in 120 women receiving 1st trimester abortions. The sex-role concept dimension was measured both ty self-attributions of sex-role traits (as measured by the Bem Sex-Role Inventory) and by lifestyle (career vs. homemaker) trait attbibutions. Psychological and physiological aspects of abortion outcome were included: slighlty more than 7% of scores were in the symptomatic range, similar to percentages found in previous studies. Both Androgyny (r = -.42, p.001) and Masculinity (r = -.23, p.05) were found to be related to positive abortion outcome. Androgyny was more strongly related, which suggests that a balance of masculine and feminine traits, at least for women in the post-abortion situation, is prefereable to high Masculinity scores alone. Congruence between one's self-image and one's image of a career woman was also found to be related to abortion outcome (r = .31, P.01). In attempting to differentiate between the upper and lower 10% of the distribution of abortion outcome, only 2 variables, Androgyny and self-career congruence, survived parameter criterion, and accounted for 32% of the variance.