Ninth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

When examined by race and socioeconomic status, the association between religiosity and attitudes about pregnancy is unclear. This study’s objective was to explore the relationship between Latinos’ religiosity and openness to pregnancy. We analyzed survey data from 1442 fecund Latinos (ages 18-39) in the U.S. who were not pregnant or trying to become pregnant. The primary outcome was lack of openness to pregnancy, indicating that participants did not currently want to become pregnant and would not find a pregnancy acceptable. Religion indicators included affiliation (including Christian, non-Christian, none/atheist/agnostic), personal importance of religion, frequency of religious service attendance, and prayer. Using adjusted logistic regression models, we examined the relationship between each religion indicator and openness to pregnancy. Adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, indicators of weaker or no religiosity were positively associated with lack of pregnancy openness. For example, individuals reporting no religious affiliation had elevated odds of being not open to pregnancy compared to Christians. Individuals reporting religion to be unimportant were more likely to not be open to pregnancy compared to those for whom religion was very important. Those who never or seldom prayed were more likely to be closed to pregnancy compared to those praying daily. Findings suggest that lower religiosity is associated with lack of pregnancy openness among Latinos in the U.S. Future models will explore multidimensional measures of religiosity.