Adolescence and young adulthood are important times of growth during which young people are developing romantic and interpersonal relationships. However, rates of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STD) peak during this period [1, 2]. Past work demonstrates that contraception use is improved when partners are communicating about this together [3–7] and that young men often believe preventing pregnancy is a shared responsibility [8, 9]. However, engagement in coercive pregnancy behaviors within a relationship can result in the domination of one’s partners wishes and actions. Studies that have examined female adolescents’ perspectives of coercive pregnancy behaviors have described that male coercive pregnancy behaviors might influence the likelihood of pregnancy [10–12]. Although most studies suggest that coercion involving a male partner’s dominance over a female predominates, females may also engage in forms of coercion [13]. Examining young men’s perceived engagement in coercive pregnancy behaviors and their experience of these behaviors by their partners would contribute to a better understanding of this issue.

Past work, conducted among adult men, has examined some aspects of men’s perceived experience of coercive pregnancy behaviors by partners [14–17]. Two quantitative studies described that 10% of adult men perceived partners had ever tried to get pregnant when they did not want them to, 4% reported female partners refused to let them wear condoms when wanting to, and 8% perceived a partner had ever tried to interfere with their birth control use [14, 15]. Two qualitative studies described small samples of men discussed their female partners engaging in pregnancy-promoting behaviors, such as interfering with their contraceptive strategies or pressuring them to father children [16, 17].

Fewer studies have assessed from the adult male viewpoint reports of engagement in coercive pregnancy behaviors. Three qualitative studies described small samples of young men discussed engaging in coercive pregnancy behaviors (e.g., pressuring or deceiving partners into becoming pregnant, failing to withdraw as promised, damaging condoms before use) [16–18]. No men in these studies endorsed making a partner have sex without a condom or removing a condom during sex.

Limitations to past work include lack of inclusion of male adolescents and assessments of specific coercive pregnancy behaviors (e.g., assessing only whether men have pressured a partner to become pregnant rather than also assessing specific condom use, withdrawal, and birth control behaviors). This prior work has also not examined behavioral overlap of these occurrences (e.g., the degree to which young men perceived experience of and/or engagement in these behaviors). There is also a need to better understand young men’s attitudes about women’s contraception use decisions and responsibility to provide greater context to these behaviors [8, 9]. Developing and examining new measures of coercive pregnancy behaviors with young men does not negate or supersede women’s perceptions of, or experiences with, these behaviors.

Addressing these gaps, we explored sexually active young men’s perceived experience of coercive pregnancy behaviors by a partner, their engagement in these behaviors with a partner, and behavioral overlap in these reports. We also described young men’s attitudes about women and contraception.

Overall, we found that just over one-third of young men from a clinical convenience sample ever perceived experience of and/or engagement in coercive pregnancy behaviors with partners. Assessing for both perceived experience and behavioral engagement allowed for identifying young men who not only reported both but also one or the other occurrence. The coercive pregnancy behavior measures that young men were asked to report on in this study are new. We have demonstrated that young men can answer survey items about these types of sensitive issues that should be further tested and refined with future research. Findings highlight the need to include young men in research examining perceived experience of, and engagement in, coercive pregnancy behaviors to better understand why young people engage in these behaviors.

The overall prevalence of young men’s reported engagement in coercive pregnancy behaviors in this study was generally consistent with young women’s perceptions of reproductive coercion behaviors by their male partners estimated at 4–20% by females aged 14–29 in a recent systematic review [11]. Reproductive coercion has been defined as behavior that interferes with women’s autonomous decision-making with regard to reproductive health [10–12]. In the current study, young men most frequently reported not using withdrawal when one’s partner thought he would and convincing one’s partner to have condomless sex when not wanting to. Use of these behaviors have implications for both STD risk and unintended pregnancy, especially during emerging adulthood that coincides with the highest rates for these negative health outcomes. While an established literature describes the negative impact reproductive coercion has for women [11], the influence of similar perceived experiences for young men’s health has yet to be well-defined or investigated. Despite the fact that young men’s beliefs about women and contraception appeared to indicate a common distrust of women. Greater frequencies of young men had mistrustful attitudes about women’s contraception use and pregnancy desire than the proportion perceiving experience of coercive pregnancy behaviors by partners. More research is needed to understand this generalized distrust and its implications for gender relations within the context of partnered relationships.

Past research examining the context of reproductive coercion experiences among only women demonstrates these were associated with periods of intimate partner violence, increased pregnancy risk [20, 24] and among Black women in the context of more transient relationships and male partners’ impending incarceration [25, 26]. Although the current study did not assess the context of young men’s coercive pregnancy behaviors, one of the few studies that examined a community sample of nonproblem drinking adult men’s condom use resistance intentions, demonstrated resistance intentions were associated with past severe sexual aggression [27]. Other factors may also contribute to young men’s condom use resistance that partners may perceive as being coercive, including lack communicating goals related to seeking sexual pleasure or reproduction [28–30]. Future work is needed to gain a better understanding of the reasons why some young men engage in coercive pregnancy behaviors, partner-level concordance of coercive pregnancy behaviors using dyadic research methodology [31, 32], and coercive pregnancy behaviors within the context of other experiences of intimate partner violence.

The current study extends prior work by also assessing young men’s perceived experience of condom-, withdrawal-, and birth control-related coercive behaviors by their partners and the overlap of these perceived experiences with young men’s own use of these behaviors. When assessing alone, just under thirty percent of young men reported ever perceiving experience of one or more of these behaviors by a partner. When examining behavioral overlap with engagement in these behaviors, only thirteen percent ever perceived experiencing these behaviors by a partner and fifteen percent reported both perceived experience of and engagement in these behaviors. Future research is needed to examine the temporal order of these occurrences, whether they occurred in the same or different relationships, and the prevalence of more recent coercive pregnancy behavioral occurrences since this study assessed only lifetime behavioral recall [20, 33].

More young men responded to the item-specific coercive pregnancy measures than the more generally phrased “pressure to get pregnant” question. Use of item-specific measures may have assisted with young men’s behavioral recall about these specific occurrences. It is also possible that affirmative responses to some items (e.g., perceptions that partners prevented them from using withdrawal or doing it themselves or for convincing a partner to not use condoms when they did not want to) may not be directly related to males’ motivations for pregnancy and were instead due to other reasons (e.g., achieving greater sexual pleasure during sex act [29, 30]). Future work should aim to refine these measures for use by young men.

This study was limited by a small convenience sample recruited from primary care and STD clinics in one urban area. Future work should examine contextual factors that are associated with young men’s experience/engagement of coercive pregnancy behaviors and the settings where they may present. Measures of coercive pregnancy behaviors represented self-reports that may not include other forms of coercive pregnancy behaviors or other experiences of intimate partner violence. Examining perceptions of, and engagement in, coercive pregnancy behaviors by young men was not intended to set up equivalences of coercive experiences by young men and women, but rather an effort to describe a range of these experiences by young men.

Findings highlight the need for research to include young men in examining coercive pregnancy behaviors as well as developing strategies to support educational and clinical approaches to address young men’s role as partners in healthy contraceptive practices.