KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES ABOUT EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION INUNIVERSITY STUDENTS.

COLLEGE students; CONTRACEPTIVE drugs; RESEARCH; UNWANTED pregnancy; ABORTION; BIRTH control

Unintended pregnancy continues to be a major problem on U.S. college campuses. An effective means of reducing these high rates could be the use of emergency contraceptive pills (ECP), but levels of usage have been very low. This research explores the knowledge and attitudes of a convenience sample of college students toward ECP. Survey data were collected from 693 university students with results demonstrating that this sample of college students knew very little about ECP, how it works, when to take it, and most important, where to obtain the pills. Researchers conclude that although ECP has the potential to drastically reduce the number of unintended pregnancies on campus, this method will never be effective unless student knowledge, and awareness of the issue are greatly increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of College Student Journal is the property of Project Innovation Austin LLC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)