Condom Use and Fertility among Divorced and Separated Women

Sexually active divorced and separated women constitute a significant population at risk for sexually transmitted diseases. With components of the Interaction Model of Client Health Behavior (IMCHB) used as the conceptual framework, a convenience sample (N = 254) of women - mostly educated, White, and in their 30s (20 to 49 years) - was examined relative to condom use and individual and social context characteristics. To explore the effect of fertility on condom use, the sample was divided into fertile and infertile subsamples. The IMCHB explained 49% of the variance in infrequent condom use by the fertile women (n = 93) and 21% of the variance in less frequent condom use by the infertile women (n = 161).