According to a recent study, parents of teenage girls prefer their daughters to use birth control pills rather than any other form of contraceptive, including condoms.
Teenage pregnancy is one of the growing issues in the U.S. that the government is tackling. Various studies on different aspects of this topic have been carried out. A recent study conducted by UC San Francisco (UCSF) found that parents of teenage girls prefer their daughters to use birth control pills rather than any other form of contraceptive, including condoms.
The implant where a matchstick-sized rod is inserted in the arm to prevent pregnancy and known to be the most effective contraceptive was preferred by only a minority of parents. For the study, the data of 261 parents, who had daughters between the ages of 12 to 17, was collected from San Francisco General Hospital and five Kaiser Northern California clinics.
A survey was conducted that asked questions on the parents' perception of their daughter having sex, their own sex life as teenagers, their parenting beliefs and they knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases. The information was put together with the parents' acceptance of seven contraceptives. Parents were asked if their daughter was found to have had sex, which contraceptive method would they like their doctor to recommend to their daughter.
It was found that 59 percent of the parents preferred birth control bills, 51 percent said condoms, and injection contraception was the third most preferred choice with 46 percent of the parents voting for this method.
Forty-five percent chose emergency contraception, while transdermal patches received 42 percent votes. Thirty-two percent of parents chose implants and only 18 percent chose IUDs.
It was also found that most parents, who perceived their teenage child was likely to have sex, preferred condoms and emergency contraception only and didn't approve of anything else.
"Considering the fact that condoms are our only method that protects these teenagers from sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy, and because the condom seems less invasive than other forms of contraception, we were surprised they weren't accepted by a larger percentage," said Lauren Hartman, MD, a clinical fellow in the UCSF Department of Pediatrics and lead author of the study.
