Sexual Behavior, Contraceptive Use, and Reproductive Health
Social science oriented studies of sexual behavior, contraceptive practice, unwanted pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV/AIDS
CPC fellows contribute to understanding of sexuality and population issues through the diverse and complementary research questions they address in domestic and global settings. CPC researchers explore this theme through several mechanisms including the timing of the initiation of premarital sexual behavior and its association with sexually transmitted infections and adolescent depression. Other researchers explore methods for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and the role of side effects in continuation of those methods. These and other barriers to use of contraceptives play a part in understanding the delivery of contraceptive services. CPC fellows have also explored how reducing violence against women and girls is important to the provision of reproductive health and HIV-prevention programs.
Individual characteristics and behavior in context improve the understanding of the risks for HIV infection. CPC researchers examine sexual initiation and its associated risks with an emphasis on contextual factors. In some settings, young women who have not completed high school are almost four times more likely to be HIV positive compared to those who complete high school, demonstrating that an important approach to decreasing sexual risk among youth in the US and globally is to keep them in school and engage them academically.
Related Fellows:
- Clare Barrington
- Margaret E. Bentley
- Shelah S. Bloom
- Jane D. Brown
- David K. Guilkey
- Carolyn Tucker Halpern
- Kathleen Mullan Harris
- William D. Kalsbeek
- Audrey E. Pettifor
- Ilene S. Speizer
- Chirayath M. Suchindran
- Harsha Thirumurthy
- Jim Thomas
- Sharon S. Weir
Related Research:
- Center on Antisocial Drug Dependence: The Genetics of HIV Risk Behaviors
- Effects of Cash Transfer and Community Mobilization in Young South African Women
- Improving nutritional status and health of infants and lactating women through the use of Lipid Based Nutrition Supplements (LNS): Evidence from a longitudinal, randomized trial in Lilongwe, Malawi
- MEASURE Phase III Monitoring and Assessment for Results
- Measurement, Learning & Evaluation (MLE) Project for the Urban Reproductive Health Initiative
- TeenWeb: Using the Web to Survey and Inform Urban Adolescents about Health
- The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health
- USAID APHIA II Kenya
