Predictors of intention to promote family planning: a survey of Protestant seminarians in the United States. uri icon

abstract

  • The purpose of this study was to examine Protestant seminary students' intention to promote family planning. Intention to promote family planning and its predictors were examined by testing a conceptual model based on the theory of planned behavior and social cognitive theory. A nonrepresentative sample of 635 seminarians (90.5% Anglo; 66.5% male) from 10 theological schools in the United States completed a mailed survey. Students were classified according to their religious beliefs as conservative (61.9%) and nonconservative (38.1%), and group differences in intention (and its correlates) were examined. Structural equation modeling was used to assess relationships among attitudes toward sexuality, attitudes toward family planning, subjective norms, knowledge, self-efficacy, and intention for both conservative and nonconservative students. Results indicated that the relationships among predictors of intention were essentially similar for both conservative and nonconservative seminarians, with attitudes and self-efficacy for promoting family planning exhibiting the strongest direct effects on intention.

published proceedings

  • Health Educ Behav

author list (cited authors)

  • Goodson, P.

citation count

  • 6

complete list of authors

  • Goodson, Patricia

publication date

  • October 2002