Interactive: the theory-of-planned-behavior pathway

In Ajzen’s model, three beliefs — your attitude toward using contraception, the subjective norm (what you think important others expect), and your perceived behavioral control — combine into an intention. But intention alone does not determine behavior: perceived control also feeds the behavior directly. Lower control and watch a strong intention fail to become protection.

Attitude toward using70
Subjective norm45
Perceived behavioral control60
direct control pathAttitude70Subjective norm45Control60Intention60Contraceptive use60
Intention stands at 60 and the predicted behavior at 60 — use is likely but inconsistent — the intention-behavior gap bites. Raise attitude and norm to their maximum but hold control low, and intention climbs while behavior lags: that gap between wanting to and doing is exactly what the direct control path encodes, and why access and skill matter as much as motivation.

Interactive: the effectiveness gap, compounded over time

A method’s perfect-use and typical-use failure rates differ by how forgiving it is of human error. Slide adherence between the two, and watch the chance of at least one unintended pregnancy compound across years: a small annual rate becomes a large cumulative one. First-year rates are Trussell’s (2011).

Method
Adherence (typical → perfect)50%
Years of use5
0%25%50%75%100%0246810years of use
Over 5 years of oral pill use, the cumulative chance of at least one unintended pregnancy is 1.5% with perfect use, 21% at your adherence, and 38% with typical use. When perfect and typical rates are equal (the implant and IUD), adherence does nothing — that forgiveness of error is precisely what makes long-acting methods so effective in practice.

Interactive: what counts as unmet need

“Unmet need” is a precise demographic measure, not a headcount of non-users: it is the women who are fecund and sexually active, want to avoid or delay a pregnancy, yet are using no method. Build the cohort of 1,000 down to that group and see how each filter narrows it.

Fecund & sexually active72%
…who want to avoid/space80%
…currently using a method78%
1,000 women of reproductive ageusing a method: 449unmet need: 127
Of 1,000 women, 720 are fecund and sexually active, 576 want to avoid or delay pregnancy, and 449 are using a method — leaving 127 with unmet need (17.6% of the fecund, active group). Raising the share who want to avoid pregnancy can increase measured unmet need even as contraceptive use rises: the denominator is desire, not merely non-use, which is why the measure tracks autonomy rather than simple coverage.