The influence of family and friends' basic conditioning factors and self-care agency on unmarried teenage primiparas' engagement in contraceptive practice.

Abstract

Orem's 1991 self-care deficit theory states that basic conditioning factors influence self-care agency and self-care, and that self-care agency is necessary for self-care. The authors explored the influence of emotional support from family and friends upon unmarried teenage primiparas' self-care agency and the influence of self-care agency on the use of contraceptives. 75 unmarried teenage primiparas aged 13 (1.3%) to 18 (42%) years, of mean age 17.013 years, were randomly selected from a major urban hospital's children outpatient program for the care of their children for participation in the study. The young women had given birth at the hospital in the preceding 24 months. 73 were Black, 15 lived alone, 37 lived with their mother, 49 had some high school education, 19 graduated from high school, 15 were unemployed, and 40 were students. Public assistance was the main source of income for 46 of the young women. 70 participants were sexually active. 33 (44%) of them used some form of contraception every time they had sexual intercourse, 13.3% almost every time, 21.3% sometimes, 5.3% almost never, and 9.3% never. 18.7% were using condoms alone, while another 18.7% used condoms and oral contraceptive pills together. 12% used either Norplant or Depo-Provera and 9.3% used birth control pills. Multiple regression analysis found emotional support from both family and friends to have a positive effect upon self-care agency, but no positive effect upon contraceptive practice. Emotional support from family was more important than emotional support from friends in predicting self-care agency. Self-care agency did not have a positive effect upon contraceptive practice. These findings support the need for community health nurses to encourage emotional support from family and friends in the interest of promoting self-care agency, but caution must be exercised in using the health promotion model to affect contraceptive practice.