Social Anxiety and Contraceptive Use in a Non-Clinical Female Sample

Abstract

Identifying psychological and behavioral factors that contribute to low or inconsistent contraceptive use is one important means by which to develop targeted interventions to promote this health behavior. The current study investigated social anxiety as a potential barrier to contraception-related communication and use among a sample of 499 undergraduate women (Mage = 20.81, SD = 3.63). Social anxiety was associated with increased likelihood of having never spoken to anyone about birth control, decreased likelihood of having spoken to one’s mother about birth control, and decreased likelihood of having ever utilized contraceptive methods that require communication with a healthcare provider among the full sample, but not among the subset of the sample that reported being sexually active with men. Additionally, there was no significant impact of social anxiety on contraceptive knowledge and, although there was a positive relationship between social anxiety and embarrassment-related condom concerns, social anxiety was not associated with shared decision-making about birth control or condom use/unprotected sex frequency with past-year partners among the subset of the sample who had been heterosexually active over the last year. Overall, these findings indicate that although social anxiety may negatively impact communication about contraception in some cases, it does not seem be a significant barrier to contraceptive-related communication or use among heterosexually active college-aged women. Future research will benefit from continued exploration of other potential psychosocial (and targetable) barriers to contraceptive-related communication and use.