Impacts of Access to Contraception and Abortion Services on Men’s Life Course Outcomes: Results of Add Health Analyses

A great deal of research demonstrates effects of access to contraception and abortion for women and their children, but much less research has considered the impacts of these developments for men. In this analysis, we leverage data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to explore the possibility of “spillover” effects on male high school classmates related to women’s access to contraception during adolescence and young adulthood. We use school-based surveys of sexual activity and use of birth control pills to ask whether males who attend schools with higher proportions of contracepting young women classmates have different adult outcomes than those attending schools with lower proportions. We hypothesized that higher rates of birth control use would lower the likelihood of pregnancy during the adolescent years, which would in turn increase young men’s future education levels, income levels, and age at first birth. Our analyses did not reveal statistically significant associations between birth control use and young men's longer-term education, income, and family formation outcomes. However, we speculate that these null results are more likely to reflect low statistical power and data limitations than a true lack of association between these factors. Specifically, because surveys only gather information on birth control use when women report being sexually active, the measure may not fully reflect the range of contraceptive users. Additionally, findings of “spillover” effects are expected to be smaller than main effects of contraception for women, limiting our ability to uncover these effects in modest-sized samples. Future research should explore whether larger samples allow more precision in estimates, but most data may suffer from an inability to measure “peer” young women of men under study. Nonetheless, it is important to continue examining the role of contraceptive access in men’s lives as it is a potentially important element to understanding the full range of impacts of contraceptive access on people’s life outcomes.