The Relationship between Induced Abortions - Article Example

The Relationship between Induced Abortions, Attitude towards Sexuality and Sexual Programs by Zoe Bradshow and Pauline Slade Changes in attitudes and feelings towards sexual matters (erotophobia - erotophilia) 1. Sexual Problems 2. Whether erotophobia-erotophilia and sexual problems are related. The authors pointed out that many studies were done that were similar in nature and these basically looked at whether a woman felt distress about having an abortion. They said that if the woman does feel distress this will usually happen from the time she starts having the abortion through the time she has it but prolonged reactions usually do not happen. Their research commented on the fact that some people are able to relate in a positive way in sexual situations (erotophilic) while others have difficulty relating (erotophobic). This information from other researchers suggested that those women who had abortions because of unwanted pregnancies had negative outcomes of sexual behavior. This could mean that a person who started out as ertophilic could turn into erotophobic during the process of the abortion. After an exhaustive literature review the authors "question" for their research was to find out whether there was a correlation between pregnancy and abortion and increased sexual problems and to find out whether a group of women who have chosen abortion are already thinking negatively about the abortion before they have it as opposed to "non-pregnant comparison group". Hypotheses And The Sample Used In The Research. Bradshaw and Slade created five hypotheses for their research question: 1. Levels of erotophobia/erotophilia will differ between pre-abortion and post- abortion phases. 2. Women due to have an abortion will not differ from a non-pregnant comparison group on erotophobia/erotophilia on pre-abortion measures. 3. A significant relationship between erotophobia – erotophilia and sexual problems will exist for women undergoing abortion and a non-pregnant sample. 4. Levels of sexual problems will differ between the pre-pregnancy, pre-abortion and post-abortion phases. 5. Women due to have an abortion will not differ from a non-pregnant comparison group on sexual problems on pre-abortion measures. (394). The variables with operational definitions. There were none listed. There was a section with algebraic equations but they were not easy to read. The methods employed and detailed explanation of how they conducted the study. The researchers used two groups. The termination of pregnancy group (TOP) showed 98 women who were present in an NHS Clinic/hospital for a first trimester medical (34%) or asurgical (68%) abortion. A two month follow-up was conducted with 44 women (46%). The demographics of the group showed that 91% were Caucasian and they ranged between 16 and 41 years old. About 33% had some college, 79% were currently in a relationship and 60% had no children. The non-pregnant comparison group was comprised of 51% Caucasian and ranged in age between 16 and 40, 17% had some college, 46% were in a relationship and 49% had no children. Both groups were given several questionnaires that provided information. They received the Sexual Opinion Survey (SOS) and the Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS) and each was to assess a different aspect of their theories. The women were asked to answer the GRISS three times: once to understand sexual problems, again two months into their pregnancy (they did this retrospectively) and a final time to test sexual problems that they encountered during the time in which they were pregnant. Seven weeks after their abortion they were sent a follow-up questionnaire through the mail. The questionnaire was timed seven weeks out to make sure women had already passed through their discomfort and were again having sexual relations. This post questionnaire was used to ask about changes in their relationship; they were also asked to complete the GRISS and the SOS again to ask about sexual problems that they may have experienced two months after the abortion. In the non-pregnant comparison group women who were waiting for an appointment in a health center were chosen. They answered a questionnaire for demographics and relationship history; they also answered the SOS and GRISS. The results of the study. The authors did prove their hypothesis in a sense. They found that both groups had levels of erotophobia that was similar; erotophilia increased after women had abortions and this was found in the two month follow-up. They found that becoming pregnant was not the issue for ertophilia but the act of having the abortion caused erotophilia. Those women who had abortions were moderately "correlated" to those who had sexual problems. Before their pregnancy )similar levels of sexual problems" were found in women in the non-pregnant group. In the next section of your paper critique the research One of the challenges with any form of research is that there may be factors that cannot be controlled but that may change the results. In this case women may not have been totally truthful on the questionnaires. Abortion is a taboo subject and may not have been the best choice for the study. The study was difficult to read and understand because of the words "erotophobia" and "erotophilia." The authors gave a description in a sense but it was not a very good one. This reader kept getting confused as to what they were attempting to say. Their hypotheses were also difficult to understand and I thought they could have narrowed them down to only two or three hypotheses instead of five. Although the research was in line with other research that had been done it did not seem that it was very important to the field. This might be good researcher for people who are studying the effects of abortion or young women. It may also be valuable to the mental health field if someone were working with women who had gone through abortions. The section that explains the measures in algebraic equations was the most difficult to understand. There were many limitations on the study according to the authors and one included the fact that the study group was very small compared to the comparisons group. I did not find anything about the study that I would say was "good" about it. The next step in this research may be to find out why women have abortions and how they are affected by them after they have them. This may be more a matter of how they see themselves. Read More