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Table 5 Young women’s measures of agency: Participation in decision-making, ability to visit alone and self-efficacy and composite agency scores by marital status, Jharkhand 2012

From: How prepared are young, rural women in India to address their sexual and reproductive health needs? a cross-sectional assessment of youth in Jharkhand

 

Married

Unmarried

 
 

(n = 690)

(n = 691)

 
 

n

%

n

%

p-value1

Participation in decision-making

     

 Choosing a friend

 

(71)

 

(82)

<0.001

 Spending money

 

(22)

 

(26)

0.061

 Buying cloths for own

 

(17)

 

(18)

0.530

 Own health care

 

(8)

 

(1)

<0.001

 Choosing any doctor

 

(6)

 

(1)

<0.001

 When to get pregnant

 

(9)

 

n/a

--

 When to get married

 

n/a

 

(3)

--

Mobility

     

 Able to visit program inside village alone

96

(14)

106

(15)

0.453

 Able to visit shop inside village alone

174

(25)

359

(52)

<0.001

 Able to visit friend inside village alone

172

(25)

318

(46)

<0.001

 Able to visit program outside village alone

20

(3)

23

(3)

0.646

 Able to visit shop outside village alone

26

(4)

23

(3)

0.658

 Able to visit friend outside village alone

14

(2)

14

(2)

0.997

 Able to visit doctor alone

12

(2)

4

(1)

0.044

Self-efficacy

     

 No difficulty expressing opinion to elders

163

(24)

159

(23)

0.787

 Can talk confidently to a provider on SRH issues including abortion

153

(22)

103

(15)

0.001

 Can initiate discussing issues related to SRH with my friends

217

(31)

141

(20)

<0.001

 Can help my friends to choose a trained doctor who provides abortion

146

(21)

47

(7)

<0.001

 Able to say “no” to sex if I don’t feel like having sex

238

(35)

--

--

--

Composite agency scores

     
 

Mean

(sd)

Mean

(sd)

 

 Decision making [Range: 0–12]

2.5

(2.25)

2.6

(1.79)

0.372

 Choice of mobility [Range: 0–12]

6.6

(1.93)

7.5

(1.67)

<0.001

 Access to money [Range: 0–3]

0.2

(0.63)

0.1

(0.56)

0.005

 Sense of self-worth [Range: 0–4]

0.9

(1.15)

0.6

(0.89)

<0.001

 Overall Agency [Range: 0–33]

10.2

(3.99)

10.8

(3.06)

0.005

  1. 1P-value associated with Z-test of two sample proportions