AN INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT OF SOME CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

THAT LEAD TO TEENAGE PREGNANCY AND ITS PROPENSITY LEVEL

TO THE SELECTED ADOLESCENTS OF IMUS CITY, CAVITE

A Thesis Proposal
Submitted to the Faculty of
Department of Social Sciences and Humanities
Cavite State University
Imus, Cavite

In partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree
Bachelor of Science in Psychology

JANELLE C. DIONISIO
CASSANDRA MARIEL F. MATUNDAN
 May 2017
INTRODUCTION

Adolescence is defined as the development phase in the human life cycle that is

situated between childhood and adulthood. It is characterized by rapid physical growth

and development, with notable emotional and social changes (Gouws, Kruger, & Burger,

2008 cited by Mushwana, Monareng, Richter & Muller, 2015). A great challenge in this

stage of development is that new feelings emerge, friends assume greater importance, and

interest in the opposite sex increases (Gouws et al., 2008 and Shaffer and Kipp, 2007

cited by Mushwana et al., 2015). It is also a critical period for the development of healthy

behaviors and lifestyles (Newman, Harrison, Dashiff & Davies, 2008). It can be a time of

both disorientation and discovery. The transitional period can bring up different issues.

They face tough choices regarding school-work, decision making, sexuality and their

social life (Schunk & Meece, 2005).

Adolescents whose age ranges from 12 to 19 years old (Erikson, 1963 cited by

Maseko, 2006) engage in more reckless, risky, and thrill-seeking behaviors than their

younger and older peers (Tymula, Belmaker, Roy, Ruderman, Manson, Glimcher & Levy,

2012). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified sexual behaviors as

one of the six identified risk behaviors. This kind of behavior can contribute to

unintended pregnancy (Newman et al., 2008). Adolescent pregnancy brings change to the

lives of young girls and in most instances negative social consequences such as dropping

out of school and interrupted education. Adolescent pregnancies contribute to many

health problems as girls enter into motherhood before they are physical and

psychosocially ready (Godding, 2008 and Richter & Mlambo, 2005).

Adolescence is a period of development often marked by experimentation and

engagement in new activities. Many adolescents engage in risky behaviors, including

early sexual initiation, multiple sex partners, and alcohol use (Kao & Carter, 2013). Their

risk sexual behavior may be resulted to unwanted pregnancy. According to United

Nations Population Fund (2008), with a 70-percent rise noted in a span of 10 years from

1999 to 2009, the Philippines has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Now, this is one of the problems that

the Philippines needs to face. The research will be conducted in Imus City, Cavite

because according to the unit head of office on Population and Development (POPCOM

2016), it was an alarming stage that teenage pregnancy continues to increase in number at

Imus City.

Studies have found parent monitoring and adolescent sexual activity to have a

complex relationship. Low levels of parent monitoring are associated with a variety of

risky behaviors, including unprotected sex, drug use, and drug trafficking (Li, Stanton, &

Feigelman, 2000 cited by Frankel, 2012). Those adolescents who were closely supervised

by their parents had a lower amount of sexual risk taking than those adolescents who had

low amounts of parental monitoring or supervision (Newman et al., 2008). Another factor

of teenage pregnancy is absence of father. Adolescents who live without their father are
more likely to engage in greaterand earlier sexual activity (Ellis, Bates, Dodge,

Fergusson, Horwood, Pettit & Woodward, 2003 cited by Allen & Daly, 2007). Greater

exposure to father absence was strongly associated with elevated risk for early sexual

activity and adolescent pregnancy (Elis et al., 2003). Low religiosity can be a factortoo.

Individuals who identify with a religious group tend to have stronger proscriptions

regarding aspects of sexuality including pornography (Sherkat & Ellison, 1997) that may

influence group norms regarding teen pregnancy (Mollborn, Domingue, Boardman,

2011). Poor self-concept is also associated with earlier onset of sexual activity for both

male and female teens. Social psychological variables can also be identified as risk

factors contributing to teenage pregnancy. For instance, youth with low self-esteem may

be more sexually active than youth with higher self-esteem; they often seek sexual

partners as a means to make them feel better. Consequently, they have a greater chance of

becoming pregnant (Shepard, Carpenter & Kemp, 2002).Television, films and other

forms of media have removed a lot of the mystery surrounding sex by increasingly

explicit portrayal of sexual acts, which can provide a model of sexual behavior

(Slowinski, 2001).Some study also revealed that due to poverty of their parents or

guardians, teenagers were inclined to get into a relationship with opposite sex to escape

with the burdens they are experiencing in the family. Likewise, persistence of poverty

would result in risky sexual behavior and teenage pregnancy (Bulaclac, Obniala, Perez,

Tolentino & Velasquez, cited by Guillasper, 2013).

 A scale that will measure the female adolescents’ propensity level to teenage

pregnancy was not yet developed international or in local setting.

In line with this, the researchers decided to develop an instrument about teenage

pregnancy and its propensity level to the selected adolescents. This research will give

awareness to the readers on some contributing factors that lead to teenage pregnancy

which can give an idea on how to prevent this kind of problem.Those adolescents that

will be measured as high in propensity can be given an advice for them to avoid teenage

pregnancy.

Statement of the Problem

The research in general attempts to know somecontributing factors that lead

teenage pregnancy and propensity level of selected femaleadolescents.

Specifically, it aimed to examine the following questions:

1. What are the themes extracted that lead to teenage pregnancy?

2. What are the contributing factors that lead to Teenage Pregnancy?

3. What are the items that measure the propensity level of Teenage Pregnancy?

4. What are the psychometric properties of contributing factors that causes teenage

pregnancy?

a. Reliability (Test re-test Reliability)

b. Validity (Content, Face and Concurrent Validity)

c. Scoring
 d. Verbal Interpretation

5. Is there a relationship difference between the IskalangMaagangPagbubuntis and

Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ)?

Hypothesis

In the light of these data presented, the researchers come up with this null

hypothesis:

1. There is no relationship difference between the IskalangMaagangPagbubuntis and

Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ)?

Objective of the Study

The general objectives of the study are to know the predictors of Teenage

Pregnancy and to determine the proneness level of pregnant and not pregnant

adolescents.

Specifically, the study aimed to:

1. To know the themes extracted that lead to teenage pregnancy;

2. To know contributing factors that lead to Teenage Pregnancy;

3. To make items that measure the propensity level of Teenage Pregnancy;

 4. To know the psychometric properties of contributing factors that causes teenage

pregnancy;

4.1 Reliability (Test re-test Reliability)

4.2 Validity (Content, Face and Concurrent Validity)

4.3 Scoring

4.4 Verbal Interpretation

5. To determine the relationship between the IskalangMaagangPagbubuntis and

Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ).

Conceptual Framework

Figure 1. An Instrument Development of some Contributing factors that leads to Teenage

Pregnancy and its Propensity Level to the selected Adolescents

The diagram shows that the aim of the study is to develop an instrument that measures

teenage pregnancy propensity level of Adolescents.

 The researchers revealed that Teenage pregnancy is one of the problems in the

Philippines wherein it is the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the Association of

Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In line with this, Adolescent girls who give birth

each year have a much higher risk of dying from maternal causes compared to women in

their 20s and 30s (WHO, 2008).

Adolescents engage in more reckless, risky, and thrill-seeking behaviors than their

younger and older peers (Tymula, Belmaker, Roy, Ruderman, Manson, Glimcher& Levy,

2012). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified sexual behaviors as

one of the six identified risk behaviors. This kind of behavior can contribute to

unintended pregnancy (Newman et al., 2008). It is a period of development often marked

by experimentation and engagement in new activities. Many adolescents engage in risky

behaviors, including early sexual initiation, multiple sex partners, and alcohol use (Kao et

al., 2013).

Through this instrument that will be develop; the researches will measure the

teenage pregnancy propensity level of adolescents.

Theoretical Framework

Erikson might wonder about unresolved conflicts from earlier stages of

development but most likely would attribute unwanted teen pregnancy primarily to the

adolescent psychosocial conflict of identity versus role confusion. In Erikson’s view,

adolescents seek a sense of identity by experimenting with different roles and behaviors

to see what suits them; they try drugs, dye their hair orange, join radical groups, change

majors every semester and have sex. Some adolescents may also try to find an easy

resolution to their role confusion by prematurely latching onto an identity as someone’s

boyfriend or girlfriend rather than doing the hard work of experimenting to find out who

they are (Erikson, 1968 cited by Sigelman & Rider, 2014). Due to role confusion, they

might also find their identity by means of observing in the environment.

Bandura (1977) stated that behavior is learned through a process by observing the

environment. In Bandura’s (1977) illustration of human behavior, personal factors,

environmental factors, and behaviors all have a direct impact on each other. According to

social cognitive theory, people learn not only from their own personal experiences, but

also from the experiences of other individuals and the consequences associated with

them. Quality of health is both an individual and a societal matter. In order to diminish

the rates of adolescent pregnancy, it is essential to address the variables that impact

adolescents’ perspectives on sex. Social cognitive theory can be valuable when applied to

public health efforts to decrease adolescent pregnancy (Thrasher, 2015).

Bandura studied the period of adolescence and the life span into adulthood related

to behavior modeling. Bandura believed that youth do not inherit tendencies but learn and

imitate the behavior of others. The Social learning Theory gives insight of youth behavior

and the significance of social involvement. Individuals learn by observational learning,

the connection between environment-person-behavior, understanding acquired behavior

as complex, and through self-efficacy (Miller, 2002). Observation and reinforcement

allows youth to learn aggressive play, sharing, peer interaction, sex-typed behaviors, and

independence (Garnett, 2007).

Significance of the Study

The researchers will know indicators of Teenage Pregnancy and will develop an

instrument to measure teenage pregnancy propensity level of adolescents. The result of

this study may be beneficial to the following:

Adolescents.As adolescents who encounter different challengeson self-identity, peer

groups and risk taking behavior. This study may help the adolescents gain their

knowledge about teenage pregnancy and its indicators in able to awaken their mind and

avoid engaging in early pregnancy and how it may contribute to their selves.

Parents.As a parent who have child that is in Adolescent stage who do not understand

their child’s thinking, emotions and needs. This study may able to give them idea of some

indicators affecting teenage pregnancy for them to avoid their child to engage on early

child bearing; basically through encouragement and right nurture.

Counselors and Academe.The information and instrument that will provide in the study

can be used as a basis in formulating an intervention program or policy which can

educate the parents about teenage; likewise help to improve the welfare and awareness of

Adolescents.
Future Researcher.This study may be able to open opportunities for them to study

teenage pregnancy on Philippine setting and how it affects the Filipinos adolescents

nowadays. This will also be a reference for those who want to study further of some

othersindicators of teenage pregnancy. The future researcher can also adapt data from this

study to implement an intervention for adolescents and also able to use the instrument for

other adolescents in other study to establish more the reliability of the tests.

Readers. This study may give information about teenage pregnancy and its indicators for

them to be more aware and avoid early child bearing for their selves.

Scope and Limitations

The research design for this study is Quali-Instrument Development. The

qualitative part has a short portion in the study which the researchers will conduct a

survey. The quantitative part will happen when the developed instrument of the

researchers will be administered to the participants. The study is conducted to determine

some contributing factors that lead to teenage pregnancy and its propensity level to the

selected adolescents of Imus City, Cavite. The study focused on identifying some

contributing factors through survey in 12 participants, an adolescent who got pregnant

one year ago or up to present but still an adolescent during the survey. 12 participants will

be enough because Baker and Edwards (2012) suggest that researchers should shoot for a

sample of 12. This number gives them the experience of planning and structuring

interviews, conducting and partially transcribing these, and generating quotes for their

papers. More than this number seems to be impractical within their customary time

constraints. The factors identified will be based on the qualitative part of the study which
is the survey. The results will be used as a reference to make an instrument entitled as

Iskala ng Maagang Pagbubuntis which will be developed by the researchers and validated

by five experts including its face and content validity. The said instrument will undergo to

test retest reliability and contrast to other instrument namely Panukat ng

Pagpapahalagang Moral to have the discriminant validity. The researchers also aim to

know if there is a relationship between the two instruments. There is an interval time of

one week for test retest reliability and discriminant validity.

The instrument that will be developed is for female adolescents’ individual only.

The research will use snowball sampling technique within Imus City, Cavite since the

target population is inaccessible or hard to find. The adolescents in Imus City is the focus

of the study because according to Ms. Austria, unit head of POPCOM in Imus City,

teenage pregnancy was an alarming stage that it continues to increase in number at Imus

City. Participants are adolescents whose ages ranging from 12 to 19 years old because it

is a period of development often marked by experimentation and engagement in new

activities. Many adolescents engage in risky behaviors, including early sexual initiation,

multiple sex partners, and alcohol use (Kao & Carter, 2013).

Absence of father, perceived low religiosity, parental influence, mass media, low

self-esteem and poverty are some of the contributing factors that the researchers gathered

base on the literatures. The instrument that will develop is base on the result of the

survey; other factors that will not be mentioned in the study were not covered. Other
types of reliability and validity such as Alternate Forms, Split Half Reliability, Interscorer

Reliability, Criterion Validity, Predictive Validity and Construct Validity will not be done

due to time constraint. The study is not correlational research because it is not focusing

on the relationships of the variables. This is not also a causal comparative research

because it is not trying to determine the effects of these factors. Otherwise, the focus of

this study is to develop an instrument about the female adolescents’ propensity level to

teenage pregnancy that will be based on the result of the survey. The said instrument is

for female adolescents, thus, it is not applicable for the use of other age and gender.

Definition of Terms

For better understanding of terms used in the study, the researchers defined them

as following:

Teenage Pregnancy. It refers to the occurrence of pregnancy in females’ ages 12

to 19 years old and become pregnant from sexual intercourse.

Teenage Pregnant. An adolescent girl ages 12 to 19 years old who got pregnant

one year ago or up to present but still an adolescent during the survey.

Adolescent. A young person whose age ranges from 12 to 19 years old.

Factors. It can lead or possibly lead to teenage pregnancy.

Propensity. Tendency to engage in teenage pregnancy.

Absence of Father. This refers to fathers who are working in far places, not

living with their children or physically present but uninvolved in his daughters.

Perceived Low Religiosity. A person who does not frequently engage in any

religious act such as going to church or attending mass.

 Parental influence. A parental rules, control, monitor, presence, supervision,

communication and guidance in their children, including parents’ stability in marriage.

Mass media. A collective communication outlets or tools such as television,

internet or social networking sites that are used to store and deliver information or data

about teenage pregnancy, romantic relationship and sexual act.

Low self-esteem. Troubled by failure and tend to exaggerate events as being

negative (Rosenberg & Owen, 2001).

Poverty. The state of people who are in the social class of poor or have a financial

problem that parent was not able to send their children in school.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter contains literature taken from the books, thesis from the library and

dissertations from internet that are related to Teenage Pregnancy are presented based on

the previous findings of other researchers.

Teenage Pregnancy

Western Context

Teenage pregnancy refers to pregnancy occurs in young girls, mostly in the range

of age 13 to 17 years old. According to Jackie (2012) low self-esteem is among the

causes of teenage pregnancy. Children who are not shown love and affection from parents

will seek it out with their peer group. Many adolescents report feeling pressured by their

peers to have sex before they are married.

 Globally, 15 million women under the age of 20 give birth, representing up to

one-fifth of all births and 529, 000 women die due to pregnancy and childbirth related

complications every year (Dev Raj, Rabi, Amudha, Van Teijlingen& Chapman, 2010).

Teenage pregnancy is a major concern to world communities with the US being at the top

with almost 1,000,000 teenage pregnancies each year (Williams, 2010). The United

States has the highest pregnancy and births among adolescents (Coley & Lansdale, 1998)

cited in Chang (2012). According to the Inter-Press Service (2011), the global rate for

teenage pregnancy for the year 2011 was 52, 9 pregnancies per 1,000 female adolescents.

In, 2000 the total number of teenage pregnancies in the United States was 821, 81 (84

pregnancies per 1000 people), as compared to Canada whose total rate of teenage

pregnancies in 2000 was 38,600 (38 pregnancies per 1000 people) (Chang, 2012).

Teenage pregnancy has different effects on their personal lives because

Adolescents do not usually plan to get pregnant when they engage in sexual behavior.

Teenage pregnancies that are unplanned may lead to impulsive decision-making

(Wirkus& Maxwell, 2012). Their inability to see future consequences for their behavior

as well as psychological immaturity puts them at risk (Mokwena, 2003). The shock of an

unwanted pregnancy can be emotionally traumatic for the young teenage mother-to-be

and in situations where there is no emotional support, some teenagers may experience

increased anxiety and frustration, while others may develop depression, emotionally

reject the existence of an unborn baby, become alienated from life, break communication

with family and friends, and may eventually commit suicide (Bezuidenhout, 2009). In
line with this, it could also lead to incomplete education, unemployment and other

numerous emotional traumas (Melissa, 2012).

According to World Health Organization (2008), Adolescent girls who give birth

each year have a much higher risk of dying from maternal causes compared to women in

their 20s and 30s these risks increase greatly as maternal age decreases, with adolescents

under 16 facing four times the risk of maternal death as women over 20. Moreover,

babies born to adolescents also face a significantly higher risk of death compared to

babies born to older women.

Filipino Context

The Philippines is a top Christian country in Asia with a total of 93.3 million or

93% of the total population (International Religious Freedom, 2012). Despite of this fact,

the Philippines is still facing one of the social issues in country which is Teenage

Pregnancy. According to United Nations Population Fund (2008), With a 70-percent rise

noted in a span of 10 years from 1999 to 2009, the Philippines has one of the highest

teenage pregnancy rates in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

According to World Health Organization (2012), the survey reveals that one in

five young adult Filipino women age 18 to 24 years had initiated their sexual activity

before age 18. Some of them would have had their first intimate sexual act before

marriage. Early pregnancy and motherhood varies by education, wealth quintile, and
region. It is more common among young adult women age 15 to 24 with less education

than among those with higher education (44 percent for women with elementary

education versus 21 percent for women with college education).

Source: National Demographic and Health Survey 2013

Figure. 2 Shows Age at First Sexual Intercourse

The table shows that among women ages 25-49, the percentage having their first

sexual intercourse increases sharply from age 15 to age 18. In fact, the percentage who

had their first sexual intercourse by age 20 is almost double that found at age 18.
 Age at first sexual intercourse is another indicator of the beginning of a woman’s

exposure to the risk of childbearing. In the survey, women were asked how old they were

when they had their first sexual intercourse.

Some Contributing Factors of Teenage Pregnancy

Parental Influence

One of the most important relationships people form over the course of life

among many other relationships is the relationship between a child and a parent. Parents

play an integral part in the total development of the child (Chala, 2014). It has been said

that parents are the ‘architects’ or the ‘conductors’ of a child’s development. Parental

control and monitoring were generally found to be related to decreasedprobability of

sexual intercourse among teenagers. Parental rules, monitoringand presence were related

to decreased and more responsible sexual activity(Anemaw, 2009 cited by Chala, 2014).

Those adolescents who were closely supervised by their parents had a lower amount of

sexual risk taking than those adolescents who had low amounts of parental monitoring or

supervision (Newman et al., 2008).

Studies show that parents who have good communication, openness with their

children and increased maternal education is associated with later sexual activities in

adolescents (Anteghini, Fonseca, Ireland & Blum, 2001 cited by Shrestha, 2012). Studies

have found parent monitoring and adolescent sexual activity to have a complex

relationship. Low levels of parent monitoring are associated with a variety of risky
behaviors, including unprotected sex, drug use, and drug trafficking (Li, Stanton,

&Feigelman, 2000 cited by Frankel, 2012). Parenting practices have profound effects on

adolescent development. Good parenting can optimize an adolescent’s potential, whereas

suboptimal parenting may contribute to youth participation in high-risk behaviors

(DeVore& Ginsburg, 2005).Parent-child connectedness has consistently shown to be

associated with lower sexual activity, such that a close relationship predicts low risk

behavior (Miller, 2002 cited by Frankel, 2012).Numerous studies have also examined the

current study’s outcome of interest, sexual risk behavior, finding that authoritative

parenting principles such as monitoring, trust, support, and communication are associated

with lower levels of unsafe sexual activity (Borawski, Ievers-Landis, Lovegreen, &Trapl,

2003; Rai, Stanton, Wu, Li, Galbraith, Cotrell, Pack, Harris, D’Alessandri& Burns 2003

cited by Frankel, 2012). Stability of parent’s marriage is also believed to have an impact

on adolescent pregnancy. Intact family is often and understandably seen as ideal for the

development of an individual personality. Young women from families disrupted by

divorce are more likely than those without disruption to bear children in their teens and to

conceived and bear children outside marriage (Wolfinger, 2003 cited by Arellano, 2008).

Low Self-esteem

Poor self-concept is associated with earlier onset of sexual activity for both male

and female teens. Social psychological variables can also be identified as risk factors

contributing to teenage pregnancy. For instance, youth with low self-esteem may be more

sexually active than youth with higher self-esteem; they often seek sexual partners as a
means to make them feel better. Consequently, they have a greater chance of becoming

pregnant (Shepard et al., 2002). Low self-esteem can lead to early sexual intercourse,

both without protection and with risky partners (Ethiero.fl., 2006). Women with high

self-esteem were more likely to use protection. The present study examines the

association between self-esteem, risky sexual behavior, self image and teenage

pregnancy. It is hypothesized that 1) Risky sexual behavior leads to a higher risk of

adolescent pregnancy, 2) low self image leads to a higher risk of adolescent pregnancy

and 3) low self-esteem leads to a higher risk of adolescent pregnancy (Guðmundsdóttir,

2015). According to Jackie, (2012) low self-esteem is among the causes of teenage

pregnancy. Children who are not shown love and affection from parents will seek it out

with their peer group. Many adolescents report feeling pressured by their peers to have

sex before they are married (cited by Ogori et al., 2013).According to the study

conducted by Bulaclac, Obniala, Perez, Tolentino and Velasquez in Barangay Barrera,

Cabanatuan City, emotional factors of the respondents show that teenagers who lack

self-esteem and ambition in life, pressured by their boyfriends to engage in pre-marital

sex for the belief that their boyfriend will love them more (cited by Guillasper, 2013).

Mass Media

One factor that likely contributes to teenage sexual activity is how sex is

portrayed in popular media. The media is portraying sex in a degrading manner, and the

media makes it appear as if this is something that everybody does. Popular media

glorifies teen sex and makes it seem like the norm, and it lacks any information about
safe sex practice (Hust, Brown, &L’Engle, 2008). Television shows and movies are based

around sex, but contraceptive use rarely seems to be discussed (Hust, Brown, &L’Engle,

2008). Television shows featuring pregnant teenagers are also becoming popular, and

really seem to promote this lifestyle (Hust et al., 2008). According to Somers &Surmann

(2005), the media has impacted adolescents sexual attitudes in a way where the majority

of the interactions have been men seeing women as sex objects, sex as defining aspect of

masculinity, or sex as a competition. Somers and Surmann (2005), have documented that

sexual media exposure may lead to early sexual debut among adolescents. Media is

intertwined in the lives of adolescents today.

The amount of time adolescents spend with other types of media and technology

continues to grow. As technology progresses, adolescents are able to use their cell

phones, tablets, and handheld video game players for connection to the internet and the

media (Harris, 2011). Media plays an important role in the lives of adolescents, providing

them with opportunity for education. Media content is increasingly permeated with

violence and sexual references that can be highly influential as adolescents continue the

developmental process (Harris, 2011). Media is one way that adolescents receive

information about sex and it may have harmful effects. One-third to one-half of the

television shows teens commonly watch contains verbal references to sexual issues

(Somers &Tynan, 2006).

 It is vital that adolescents are aware of these sexual images, especially the

negative portrayals of women. Most of our learning is observational, modeling, or

imitation. With that being said, adolescents are watching these television shows that may

motivate them to become more sexually active (Somers &Tynan, 2006). Somers and

Tynan (2006) found that the exposure to sexual dialogue and sexual content on television

was related to adolescents’ sexual outcomes. Those adolescents who were more exposed

to television of a sexual nature were more sexually active and with a greater number of

partners (Somers &Tynan, 2006). Consistent media exposure may influence the ways that

adolescents develop their self-identity and how they deal with the developmental tasks of

adolescence (Somers et al., 2006). Based on the study entitled as “Factors that lead to

Teenage Pregnancy in Barangay Barrera, Cabanatuan City”, constant exposure to

pornography thru media and internet could greatly influence teenagers to engage in

pre-marital sex (Bulaclac et al., cited by Guillasper).

Absence of Father

Many studies have identified the absence of the biological father from the home

as a major risk factor for both early sexual activities and teenage pregnancy. According to

Ellis (2013), father absence occurs, the earlier daughters tend to initiate sexual activity

and become pregnant. A father’s positive involvement (as measured by the amount and

type of contact) is related to children having fewer behavioral problems (Amato &

Rivera, 1999; Howard et al., 2006).

 Adolescents who live without their father are more likely to engage in greater and

earlier sexual activity, are more likely to become pregnant as a teenager (Ellis, 2003).

This elevated risk was not explained by familial, ecological, or personal disadvantages

associated with father absence and there was stronger and more consistent evidence of

the effects of father absence on early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy than on other

behavioral or mental health problems or academic achievement. In addition, Studies have

found that father absence is correlated with a variety of risky sexual behaviors that

increase the adolescent’s risk of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases

(Donahue et al., 2010; Ellis et al., 2003; O’Donnell, O’Donnell, &Stueve, 2001; Quinlin,

2003; Vukovic & Bjegovi, 2007). On the other hand, having a close, positive father child

relationship predicts a reduced risk of engagement in multiple, first time risky behaviors.

In addition, when fathers have a positive relationship with their children, the negative

effect of having a father with an authoritarian or permissive parenting style on increased

risk of engaging in delinquent activity and substance use is reduced (Bronte-Tinkew,

Moore, &Carrano, 2006).

Following the logic of the preceding paragraph, it is not surprising that

adolescents with absent fathers are significantly more likely to experience or contribute to

a teen pregnancy (Ellis et al. 2003; Hogan & Kitagawa, 1985; & Quinlan, 2003).

Socio-Economic Factors and Education

 Economic status demonstrates to a significant relationship with marital timing

decision whose impact is extended to the timing and incidence of first pregnancy. Studies

on the Socio-economic fertility link consistently reveal that persons at lower class or

socio-economic status have higher fertility. According to Wolfinger (2010), people form

impoverished families often marry of an early age because they lack alternatives, such as

opportunity of high education. Socio-economic status does not provide any alternative to

adolescents directs them to early marriage.

Similarly, Oro (2003) in her study of Women’s economic standing and marriage

timing cited the theory of specialization and exchange which states that women’s higher

economic standing will decrease their chance of getting married.

Socio-economic status as a significant determinant of adolescent pregnancy

persisted in the studies among different countries like Turkey (Birsen, 2006) and Brazil

(Gupta, 2000). In short, adolescent pregnancy was more prevalent among women from

families with a low socio-economic status, as determined by occupation and income.

Together with Socio-economic status, educational attainment is among the variables

found to be associated most with adolescent pregnancy. It is believed to strongly and

consistently influence fertility. It has a substantial effect on other explanatory variables

such as ideal family size, attitudes towards birth control, knowledge of contraception and

husband-wife communication. Unlike the less-educated and lower classes, alternatives

were given to the educated in numerous studies across regions. In turkey, pregnancy is

observed to occur more often among adolescent with secondary level or lower
educational level (Bersen, 2006). In Brazil education is consistently associated with

premarital intercourse and contraceptive use during initiation which highly determines

the likelihood of pregnancy among adolescent (Gupta, 2000). Adolescent pregnant in

Brazil is significantly identified among school drop outs (Chalem, 2007). Pregnancy is

also the most common cause of school dropouts among adolescent girls in USA which

has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in industrial world (Lee, 2003).

According to the study of Bulaclac, Obniala, Perez, Tolentino and Velasquez

(2013), findings reveled that due to poverty of their parents or guardians, teenagers were

inclined to get into a relationship with opposite sex to escape with the burdens they are

experiencing in the family. Likewise, persistence of poverty would result in risky sexual

behavior and teenage pregnancy.

Perceived Low Religiosity

Religious beliefs were among the most common factors cited by teens as their

reason for remaining sexually abstinent, second only to fear (e.g., fear of an unwanted

pregnancy, a sexually transmitted disease, or parental discipline). The level of overall

religious practice in a community also influences the sexual behavior of its youth: The

greater the level of religious practice, the lower the level of teen sexual activity (Fagan,

2016).
 In a 2002 review of the academic literature on the effects of Religion, 97 percent

of the studies reported significant correlations between increased religious involvement

and a lower likelihood of promiscuous sexual behaviors. The authors found that

individuals with higher levels of religious commitment and those who regularly attended

religious services were generally much less likely to engage in premarital sex or

extramarital affairs or to have multiple sexual partners (Fagan, 2016).

In line with this, Sinha, Cnaan and Gelles (2007) studies indicate indicates that

youth perceive religion as important, are active in religious worship and activities, and

further shows that perceived importance of religion as well as participation in religious

activities are associated with decreased risk behaviors. Looking at ten risk behaviors,

religiosity variables were consistently associated with reduced risk behaviors in the areas

of: smoking, alcohol use, truancy, sexual activity, marijuana use and depression.

The literature suggests that religiosity likely delays the onset of sexual intercourse

and may reduce sexual activity thereafter (Wilcox, 2001).Regular attendance at places of

worship delays the initiation of sexual intercourse (Gupta, 2000). In addition to sexual

initiation, religiosity is also found to be associated with contraceptives used among

adolescent in Brazil (Gupta, 2000). According to his study, greater frequency of attending

religious services is associated with lower rates of sexual initiation and higher use of

contraceptives. Sexual initiation and contraceptives use highly determine the likelihood

of adolescent pregnancy. Thus it is important to examine the predictors of this variable.

Factors associated with a delay in the initiation of sexual intercourse include with living

with both parents with stable family environment, regular attendance at places with

worship and increase in family income.

Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory

One of the earliest and most basic assumptions of Bandura’s social cognitive

theory is that humans are quite flexible and capable of learning a multitude of attitudes,

skills, and behaviors and that a good bit of those learnings are a result of vicarious

experiences. Although people can and do learn from direct experience, much of what

they learn is acquired through observing others. Albert Bandura believes that observation

allows people to learn without performing any behavior. People observe natural

phenomena, plants, animals, waterfalls, the motion of the moon and stars, and so forth;

but especially important to social cognitive theory is the assumption that they learn

through observing the behavior of other people. Bandura (1986, 2003) believes that

observational learning is much more efficient than learning through direct experience.

Children observe characters on television, for example, and repeat what they hear or see;

they need not enact random behaviors, hoping that some of them will be rewarded (Feist

J., Feist G. & Roberts, 2013).

Bandura (1977) stated that behavior is learned through a process by observing the

environment. In Bandura’s (1977) illustration of human behavior, personal factors,

environmental factors, and behaviors all have a direct impact on each other. According to
social cognitive theory, people learn not only from their own personal experiences, but

also from the experiences of other individuals and the consequences associated with

them. Quality of health is both an individual and a societal matter. In order to diminish

the rates of adolescent pregnancy, it is essential to address the variables that impact

adolescents’ perspectives on sex. Social cognitive theory can be valuable when applied to

public health efforts to decrease adolescent pregnancy (Thrasher, 2015).

Bandura studied the period of adolescence and the life span into adulthood related

to behavior modeling. Bandura believed that youth do not inherit tendencies but learn and

imitate the behavior of others. The Social learning Theory gives insight of youth behavior

and the significance of social involvement. Individuals learn by observational learning,

the connection between environment-person-behavior, understanding acquired behavior

as complex, and through self-efficacy (Miller, 2002). Observation and reinforcement

allows youth to learn aggressive play, sharing, peer interaction, sex-typed behaviors, and

independence (Garnett, 2007).

Adolescents

Erikson might wonder about unresolved conflicts from earlier stages of

development but most likely would attribute unwanted teen pregnancy primarily to the

adolescent psychosocial conflict of identity versus role confusion. In Erikson’s view,

adolescents seek a sense of identity by experimenting with different roles and behaviors

to see what suits them; they try drugs, dye their hair orange, join radical groups, change
majors every semester and have sex. Some adolescents may also try to find an easy

resolution to their role confusion by prematurely latching onto an identity as someone’s

boyfriend or girlfriend rather than doing the hard work of experimenting to find out who

they are (Erikson, 1968 cited by Sigelman & Rider, 2014).

Different studies show that adolescence is the beginning of long and critical

period in personality development. It is a period in which sexual thoughts, feelings and

behaviors present throughout life often accentuated. Adolescents engage in a wide range

of risky behaviors that their older peers shun, and at an enormous cost. Adolescents

engage in more reckless, risky, and thrill seeking behaviors than their younger and older

peers (Tymula et al., 2012). Taking risks is fairly common in adolescence. Yet, risky

behaviors can be associated with serious, long-term, and – in some cases –

life-threatening consequences. This is especially the case when adolescents engage in

more than one harmful behavior (Terzian, Andrews & Moore, 2011).

Adolescence is an exciting and dynamic period for young people. As adolescents

are faced with changes in their bodies and cognitive development they are constantly

renegotiating their relationships with family, friends, school, and community. Ideally,

their view of the world expands, and a new orientation to their future as productive

independent adults emerges. As they navigate the critical tasks o self-identity

development and graduated autonomy adolescents are at risk for the development of

harmful behaviors (DeVore& Ginsburg, 2005). Sexual exploration is a normal and

typically healthy part of adolescent development. However, certain behaviors increase the

likelihood of unwanted outcomes such as pregnancy. Risk taking is common and

expected in adolescence. Across the lifespan, adolescence is the time of greatest risk

taking (Chick & Reyna, 2012 cited by Schantz, 2012). While understanding or even

over-estimating the likelihood that an action will result in harm, adolescents may place

higher value on the benefits that might come from taking a particular risk. Adolescents

are more responsive to the rewards of risk (such as peer approval), may be less sensitive

to feeling the ill effects of substance use (such as hangovers), and are still developing the

capacities for judgment and self-control (Institute of Medicine [IOM] & National

Research Council [NRC], 2011 cited by Schantz, 2012).

Imus City, Cavite

In the Philippines, Cavite ranked first in teenage pregnancy among the provinces

in the CALABARZON region (Region IV-A) (Mendoza, 2015).The Municipality of Imus

is a first class municipality in the province of Cavite, Philippines and it is the

officially-designated capital of Cavite. It has a population of 403,785 people and a total

of 97 barangays. Imus ranked as 5th in most populous cities in Region IV – A

CALABARZON (Philippine Statistics Authority, 2016). Mayor Emmanuel L. Maliksi is

the present mayor of the said city. According to the interview conducted by the

researchers to Ms. Herminia Austria, the unit head of POPCOM (2016), there are some

cases of teenage pregnancy in Imus City. It was in an alarming stage because teenage

pregnancy continues to increase in number. That is why in 2007, the POPCOM Office
started the “Adolescent Health Youth Development Program” seminar/training in some

schools and barangays to address the challenges confronting adolescents and how to face

different challenges that can contribute to unwanted pregnancy. They are also promoting

their slogan entitled as “Ang Pag-aaral ay para sa hinaharap huwag ipagpalit sa sandaling

sarap”.

METHODOLOGY

In this chapter the methods, procedure and arrangement of the data gathered will

be presented. The presentation includes the following: Research Design, the research

participants, the sampling technique used, the research locale, the data gathering

procedure, the instrumentation and the statistical treatment and tool used in the analysis

and interpretation of data.

Research Design

QUALI-INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH DESIGN

Qualitative
Face to face Interview
 Qualitative research is an inquiry in which researchers collect data in face-to-face

situations by interacting with selected persons in their settings, describing and analyzing

people, individual and collective social actions, beliefs, thoughts, and perceptions

(McMillan & Schumacher, 2006). Qualitative research involves an interpretive and

naturalistic approach which means that “qualitative researchers study things in their

natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret, phenomena in terms of the

meanings people bring to them” (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000).

The researcher will have little qualitative approach as a basis for quantitative in

making an instrument. it will qualitative because the study wants to know some of the

contributing factors of teenage pregnancy coming from selected Adolescents who are

early engage in conceiving a child. The researcher utilize face to face interview as a

research method which involves asking questions and getting answers from participants

with structured questions that will ensure that the questions being presented are exactly

same with other participants. Interview involves asking questions and getting answers

from participants.

Instrument Development

The quantitative parts of the study will the instrument development which will be

subdivided into the following stages:

Stage 1 – Planning
The researcher reviewed the existing Literatures about Teenage Pregnancy and collected

different reference materials that will help identify the contributing factors of Teenage

Pregnancy.

Step 2 -Preparation and writing the items of the instrument

The milestone of each contributing factor will be utilize to prepare the items of

instrument.

Step 3- Validation of Instrument

The researcher will submit the instrument to the experts for their comments and

suggestions for content, face and language validation.

Step 4- Reliability of Instrument

The researcher will revise the instrument based on the comments and suggestions of the

experts after that it will be administer to respondents for the establishing of test re-test

reliability.

Step 5 – Establishing the Concurrent Validity

After the researcher established the Reliability of scale, the instrument of the researchers

will compare to Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ)and will determine their

relationship for the concurrent validity of the IskalangMaagangPagbubuntis.

Research Participants

The participants for the qualitative are those adolescents who got pregnant one

year ago or up to present but still an adolescent during the survey. The researchers will

have 12 participants. Baker and Edwards (2012) suggest that researchers should shoot for
a sample of 12. This number gives them the experience of planning and structuring

interviews, conducting and partially transcribing these, and generating quotes fort heir

papers. More than this number seems to be impractical within their customary time

constraints.

The researchers will administer the instrument to 500 participants for the test

retest reliability. To get the discriminant validity of the instrument, Panukat ng

Pagpapahalagang Moral will be administered to 500 participants.

The participants’ for test retest reliability and discriminant validity are female

adolescents whose age ranges from 12 to 19 years old. The participants are adolescents

because it is the beginning of long and critical period in personality development. It is a

period in which sexual thoughts, feelings and behaviors present throughout life (Tymula

et al., 2012).

Sampling Technique

In gathering the participants for the qualitative part of the study, snowball

sampling technique will be used in Imus City, Cavite. The process starts by identifying

someone who meets the criteria for inclusion in the study. The participants are then asked

to recommend others whom they may know who also meet the criteria within the area of

Imus City. This sampling is especially useful when populations that are inaccessible or

hard to find are the target population (Reyes & Saren, 2003).The researchers will conduct
the survey to the participants wherein the results will be the reference for the instrument

development. The participants for quantitative are then purposively selected who are

female adolescents’ ages 12 to 19 years old within the area of Imus City. This is for

conducting the test retest reliability and discriminant validity, since the samples must be

taken with a purpose in mind.

Research Locale

The research locale for this study is Imus City, Cavite. The Municipality of Imus

is a first class municipality in the province of Cavite, Philippines and it is the

officially-designated capital of Cavite. It has a population of 403,785 people and a total

of 97 barangays. Imus ranked as 5th in most populous cities in Region IV – A

CALABARZON (Philippine Statistics Authority, 2016). Ms. Herminia Austria (2016)

stated in the interview that there are some cases of teenage pregnancy in Imus City. It was

in an alarming stage because it continues to increase in number. That is why in 2007, the

POPCOM Office started the “Adolescent Health Youth Development Program”

seminar/training in some schools and barangays to address the challenges confronting

adolescents and how to face different challenges that can contribute to unwanted

pregnancy. They are also promoting their slogan entitled as “AngPag-aaral ay para sa

hinaharap huwag ipagpalit sa sandaling sarap”. This statement proves that Imus City is

facing a problem in the issue of teenage pregnancy.

Data Gathering Procedure

 The researchers brainstormed about ideas and concepts of the study. They turn the

ideas into research questions and review some literatures. Through with these, they

formulate questions for the qualitative part of the study and will validate the

questionnaires to five experts, after the questions validated it will undergo to some

revisions and will proceed to administering the questionnaire.

The survey result will undergo content analysis for text interpretation and will

evaluate the themes that occurred. The themes identified will be validated again by the

five experts and the researchers will start drafting questions per factors. The instrument

will also undergo for validation.

The qualitative results will be the reference of the researchers in developing the

instrument that will measure the teenage pregnancy propensity level of the respondents.

The instrument will be validated by a 3 Registered Guidance Counselors who had

experienced in counseling teenage pregnant and 2 registered psychometricians who are

expert in instrument development.

After the validation and revision of the instrument, it will be administered to

selected female adolescents ages 12 to 19 years old of Imus City for the establishment of

test retest reliability and also for elimination of the bad items on instrument. The

researcher will know the relationship of Iskala ng Maagang Pagbubuntis and Panukat ng
Pagpapahalagang Moral for the discriminant validity of the researchers’ instrument. After

that, the presentation and interpretation of data will be discussed in chapter four.
 Figure 3. Data Gathering Flowchart

Statistical Treatment

To answer the research problem, the researchers deem to utilize the following

statistical tools:

Frequency

Frequency is the number of times occurred in a given category (Merriam, 2015). The

researchers will use frequency to know how many themes occur in content analysis for

every participant.

Mean

Mean is the sum of a collection of numbers divided by the number of numbers in the

collection (Weinstein, 2015). The researchers will use mean to determine the scores of

participants in instrument
 ∑𝑥
The formula for mean is: 𝑥= 𝑛

Where:

𝑥= Mean

∑ 𝑥 = the sum of data set

n = the number of data values

Pearson Product Moment Correlation

Pearson-R is use to determine the relationship between two variables (McCallister,

2003). The researcher will utilize this to know the relationship of teenage proneness level

scale and sexual behavior scale.

Theformula for Pearson-R is:

Where:
Instrumentation

Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ)

INSTRUCTIONS: The items listed below refer to the sexual aspects of people's lives.
Please read each item carefully and decide to what extent it is characteristic of you. Give
each item a rating of how much it applies to you by using the following scale:
A = Not at all characteristic of me.
B = Slightly characteristic of me.
C = Somewhat characteristic of me.
D = Moderately characteristic of me.
E = Very characteristic of me.
________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________
1. I am very aware of my sexual feelings.
2. I wonder whether others think I'm sexy.
3. I'm assertive about the sexual aspects of my life.
4. I'm very aware of my sexual motivations.
5. I'm concerned about the sexual appearance of my body.
6. I'm not very direct about voicing my sexual desires. (R)
7. I'm always trying to understand my sexual feelings.
8. I know immediately when others consider me sexy.
9. I am somewhat passive about expressing my sexual desires. (R)
10. I'm very alert to changes in my sexual desires.
11. I am quick to sense whether others think I'm sexy.
12. I do not hesitate to ask for what I want in a sexual relationship.
13. I am very aware of my sexual tendencies.
14. I usually worry about making a good sexual impression on others.
15. I'm the type of person who insists on having my sexual needs met.
16. I think about my sexual motivations more than most people do.
17. I'm concerned about what other people think of my sex appeal.
18. When it comes to sex, I usually ask for what I want.
19. I reflect about my sexual desires a lot.
20. I never seem to know when I'm turning others on.
21. If I were sexually interested in someone, I'd let that person know.
22. I'm very aware of the way my mind works when I'm sexually aroused.
23. I rarely think about my sex appeal. (R)
24. If I were to have sex with someone, I'd tell my partner what I like.
25. I know what turns me on sexually.
26. I don't care what others think of my sexuality.
27. I don't let others tell me how to run my sex life.
28. I rarely think about the sexual aspects of my life.
29. I know when others think I'm sexy.
30. If I were to have sex with someone, I'd let my partner take the initiative. (R)
31. I don't think about my sexuality very much. (R)
32. Other people's opinions of my sexuality don't matter very much to me. (R)
33. I would ask about sexually-transmitted diseases before having sex with someone.
34. I don't consider myself a very sexual person.
35. When I'm with others, I want to look sexy.
36. If I wanted to practice "safe sex" with someone, I would insist on doing so.
Copyright - 1991

Scoring Instructions for 

the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ):
*
Purpose:

    The Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ; Snell, Fisher, & Miller, 1991) is an

objective, self-report instrument designed to measure four personality tendencies

associated with sexual awareness and sexual assertiveness: (1) sexual-consciousness,

defined as the tendency to think and reflect about the nature of one=s sexuality; (2)

sexual-preoccupation, defined as the tendency to think about sex to an excessive degree;

(3) sexual-monitoring, defined as the tendency to be aware of the public impression

which one=s sexuality makes on others; and (4) sexual-assertiveness, defined as the

tendency to be assertive about the sexual aspects of one=s life. Factor analyses confirmed

that the items on the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire largely form conceptual clusters

corresponding to the 4 SAQ concepts (Snell et al., 1991). Other results indicated that all 4

subscales had clearly acceptable levels of reliability. Additional findings reported by

Snell et al. (1991) provided evidence supporting the convergent and discriminant validity

of the SAQ. Scores in the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire can be treated as individual

difference measures of the 4 distinct constructs measured by the SAQ or as dependent

variables when examining predictive correlates of these concepts.

Description

    The Sexual Awareness Questionnaire consists of 36 items arranged in a format where

respondents indicate how characteristic of them each statement is. A 5-point Likert scale

is used to collect data on peoples' responses, with each item being scored from 0 to 4: Not

at all characteristic of me (0), Slightly characteristic of me (1), Somewhat characteristic

of me (2), Moderately characteristic of me (3), Very characteristic of me (4). In order to

create subscale scores (discussed below), the items on each subscale are summed. Higher
scores thus correspond to greater amounts of the relevant tendency. To confirm the

conceptual dimensions assumed to underlie the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire, the

items on the SAQ were subjected to a principal axis factor analysis with varimax rotation.

Four factors accounting for 42% of the variance were interpreted. The first factor

contained items that pertained to sexual-consciousness (items 1, 4, 10, 13, 22, and 25).

The items on the second factor (items 2, 5, 14, 17, 23, 26, 28, 31, and 32) referred to

sexual-monitoring tendencies. The third factor was composed of items assessing

sexual-assertiveness (items 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, and 24), and the fourth factor was

concerned with sex-appeal-consciousness (items 8, 11, and 29). A second

cross-validation factor analysis reported by Snell et al. (1991) also showed that the SAQ

subscales were factorially consistent with the anticipated factor structure. The results of

these statistical analyses provided strong preliminary evidence supporting the factor

structure of the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ).

Scoring

    The Sexual Awareness Questionnaire consists of 36 items. All of the SAQ items are

coded so that A = 4; B = 3; C = 2; D = 1; and E = 0--except for 6 specific items which are

reverse coded (items 23, 31, 32, 30, 6, and 9); these items are designated with an "R" on

the copy of the SAQ (shown below). The relevant items on each subscale are first coded

so that A = 0; B = 1; C = 2; D = 3; and E = 4. Next, the items on each subscale are

summed, so that higher scores correspond to greater amounts of each respective

psychological tendency. Scores on the sexual-consciousness subscale can range from 0 to

24; sexual-monitoring scores can range from 0 to 32; sexual-assertiveness scores can

range from 0 to 36; and scores on sex-appeal-consciousness subscale can range from 0 to

12.

Reliability

    The internal consistency of the four subscales on the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire

was determined by calculating Cronbach alpha coefficients, using participants from 2

separate samples (Sample I consisted of 265 females, 117 males, and 4 gender

unspecified; Sample II consisted of 265 females, 117 males, and 4 gender unspecified)

drawn from lower division psychology courses at a small Midwestern university (Snell et

al., 1991). The average age of Sample I was 24.1, with a range of 17 to 60; whereas the

average age of Sample II was 24.07, with a standard deviation of 6.87. Results indicated

that all 4 subscales had clearly acceptable levels of reliability (Snell et al., 1991). In

Sample I the alphas were: for sexual-consciousness, alpha = .83 for males and .86 for

females; for sexual-monitoring, alpha = .80 for males and .82 for females; for

sex-appeal-consciousness, alpha = .89 for males and .92 for females; and for

sexual-assertiveness, alpha = .83 for males and .81 for females. For Sample II, the

internal consistency of the sexual-consciousness subscale was .85 for males and .88 for

females; for sexual-monitoring, .81 for males and .82 for females; for
sex-appeal-consciousness, .92 for males and .92 for females; and for sexual-assertiveness,

.80 for males and .85 for females.

Validity

    Evidence for the validity of the Sexual Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ) comes from a

variety of findings. Snell et al. (1991) provided evidence supporting the convergent and

discriminant validity of the SAQ. All four SAQ subscales tended to be negatively related

to measures of sex-anxiety and sex-guilt for both males and females, and

sexual-consciousness was directly related to erotophilic feelings. Other findings indicated

that women=s and men=s responses to the four SAQ subscales were related in a

predictable fashion to their sexual attitudes, dispositions, and behaviors. Other findings

indicated that men reported greater sexual-assertiveness than did women, with no gender

differences found for seuxal-consciousness, sexual-monitoring, or

sex-appeal-consciousness. Another study by Snell (1995) revealed that

sexual-assertiveness in both males and females was predictive of greater contraceptive

use, but only among males was sexual-consciousness and sexual-monitoring found to

predict more favorable attitudes toward condom use. In addition, for females and males,

sexual-consciousness, sexual-monitoring, and sexual-assertiveness were positively

associated with a greater variety and a more extensive history of sexual experiences.