BACKGROUND
A great deal of research has examined associations between
contraceptive behaviors and different combinations of
variables; Jaccard has summarized the plethora of studies
examining characteristics associated with contraceptive
use.7 However, much of this research has focused
exclusively on adolescents; some has included women of
all ages or adults aged 18–44. Moreover, nationally representative
data typically include only measures for background
characteristics and a few attitudinal or normative
measures. Therefore, most studies looking at contraceptive
or reproductive health knowledge have been based
on small, localized samples, with the exception of analyses
of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.8
To our knowledge, the present study is the fi rst nationally
representative one to examine associations between contraceptive
behaviors and a wide range of domains (including
contraceptive knowledge) among a sample of young
adults.