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Linking Pregnancy Concerns to Pregnancy Risk Avoidant Action: The Role of Construct Accessibility

College of Nursing, Ohio State University

Patricia G. Devine

University of Wisconsin-Madison

The construct accessibility perspective suggests that individuals are less likely to risk pregnancy when pregnancy concerns are highly accessible. Two studies were designed to assess the role of accessibility in pregnancy risk taking. Study 1 determined that subjects identified as likely (chronics) and unlikely (nonchronics) to have pregnancy concerns chronically accessible did not hold different beliefs about unplanned pregnancy. Study 2 examined (a) the joint effect of chronically and temporarily accessible pregnancy concerns on responses to a hypothetical intimate situation embedded in a story completion task and (b) the relation between chronically accessible pregnancy concerns and self-reported pregnancy risk taking. As predicted, chronics made fewer risk-taking responses in the story completion task and reported less risk taking than nonchronics. Temporarily accessible pregnancy concerns decreased risk-taking responses among chronics but had no effect on nonchronics. Gender differences did not qualify effects for chronic accessibility. Taken together these studies suggest that although chronics and nonchronics may hold similar beliefs about unplanned pregnancy, their behavior may vary in association with the accessibility of those beliefs. These findings support using the construct accessibility perspective to understand the link between cognition and action.

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