Adolescent men's attitudes and decision making in relation to pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes: An integrative review of the literature from 2010 to 2017

Abstract

The review updates a previous review conducted in 2010 (Lohan et al.), summarizing the available literature on young men's attitudes and decision-making in the context of addressing two questions: (1) What are adolescent men's attitudes to adolescent pregnancy? (2) What are adolescent men's attitudes and decision-making in relation to pregnancy outcomes? Using Whittemore and Knafl's process for conducting an integrative review, 38 studies published between 2010 and 2018 reporting on young men's attitudes and decision-making in relation to pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes were analysed. This review exposes gaps in the academic literature, concerning young men's experiences of unintended pregnancy and pregnancy decision making. This review argues that a greater understanding of young men's experiences when they too experience an unintended pregnancy with a partner within a relationship or beyond it is a fundamental first step in offering reproduction and sexual health counselling and services to men. As it stands, we do not yet have a significant body of literature to inform practice development.

“I can try and plan, but still get pregnant”: The complexity of pregnancy intentions and reproductive health decision‐making for adolescents

“…Lastly, study indings expound on the dilemma of how and why adolescent males are often missing from the discussion about pregnancy and reproductive decision-making, despite reports of more favorable attitudes and intentions toward pregnancy (Kane et al, 2019;Lindberg & Kost, 2014;Lohan, Cruise, O'Halloran, Alderdice, & Hyde, 2010). In the study, adolescent males were perceived to be less responsible and immature; posing pregnancy and reproductive decision-making as a woman's issue.…”

“…The lack of discussion around social context, including culture and social beliefs, was a missed opportunity. To address the gap of adolescent males' perspectives of pregnancy, another systematic review was conducted which reported contradictory indings between studies (Kane, Lohan, & Kelly, 2019). The authors highlighted that contextual factors are dependent on the social norms at the given time.…”

Systematic review of the concept ‘male involvement in maternal health’ by natural language processing and descriptive analysis

“…79 80 A systematic review from 2016 showed that women contemplating abortion frequently involve their male partner in the decision and rely on him to help with logistics, finances and emotional support before and after the abortion; furthermore, MI was positively associated with women's well-being. 80 Despite his important role, young men's experiences of unintended pregnancy and their pregnancy decision making are hardly studied within the scientific literature, 81 although essential for offering adequate counselling and services for men and women regarding sexual and reproductive health. Given that 121 million unintended pregnancies occur each year with 61% ending in an abortion, more research regarding the role of the male partner in abortion care and pregnancy decisions is highly needed for improving not only maternal health, but also broader SRHR outcomes.…”

Buenas prácticas en la atención prenatal a adolescentes embarazadas: perspectivas de profesionales de la salud

“…La participación paterna en la atención prenatal contribuye en la construcción de su rol, a veces expropiado desde el propio diseño de los sistemas de salud. De este modo, una revisión integradora en torno a las actitudes de los adolescentes frente al embarazo en la adolescencia 35 develó que aún existen vacíos en la producción de evidencias sobre las experiencias de adolescentes que se hacen padres, lo que resulta un paso importante para desarrollar intervenciones destinadas a este grupo. Otros autores también han reconocido la necesidad de visualizar al adolescente masculino dentro de los servicios de salud sexual y reproductiva 32 .…”