DECISION MAKING FOR STERILIZATION

This research will continue investigation of the decision making processes and the consequences of choosing sterilization or some alternative form of contraception, among poor black, Hispanic and white women. It will gather a third round of data from 1,640 women in New York, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta who were first interviewed Prior to sterilization or some other choice, and again, approximately 10 months later. These new data will be gathered at a 3-4 year interval since the first interview. This third wave of data collection will continue exploration of the consequences of sterilization or another contraceptive choice through comparison of consequences for a) the sterilized and not sterilized: b) those who delay sterilization and those who do not delay, and c) com- parison of short and long term consequences. The research will also enable continued refinement of an expectancy-value model for predicting both sterilization or another contraceptive choice and the consequences of those choices. Specifically the research will enable specification of the degree to which prediction errors using the model are a function of delayed implementation of choice rather than the errors. Another unique purpose of the research will be exploration of the factors which lead to delay in obtaining sterilization among poor women. Since another wave of data collection will extend the time period over which women can be followed, it will be possible to determine variables which predict both short and long delays and to determine predictors of abandoning the intent to obtain a sterilization. Finally, this research will make possible the identification of factors which lead to reversal or intent to seek reversal of sterilization or another contraceptive choice.