The relative influence of husbands and wives on the use of O.C. diaphragm and condoms.

Relatively little systematic empirical research has been dedicated to testing the traditional assumption that contraceptive behavior in the US lies principally within the wifes sphere of influence. In this paper the authors use a decision-making framework and data collected from 400 married couples over a 3.5-year period to examine the relative influence of husbands and wives over two aspects of contraceptive behavior: the decisions to select and to discontinue specific contraceptive methods; and the effectiveness of use of specific contraceptive methods. In both cases the authors focus on the specific methods of oral contraceptives (OCs) diaphragm and condoms examining their similarities and differences according to the sex of the user (OC and diaphragm vs condom) and the coitus dependency of the method (OC vs diaphragm and condom). They discuss the implications of their findings for the understanding of married couple contraceptive behavior. (authors)