Corinne Rocca
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Unintended pregnancy has long been linked to worse health for mothers and children. Yet it remains unclear whether the pregnancy itself causes the harm or whether the hardships that make unintended pregnancy more likely, such as unstable relationships or finances, are responsible.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Social Science
Mathematics & Statistics
- Topics
unintended pregnancy
pregnancy intentions
pregnancy preferences
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Identify the changing and stable life factors, such as relationships and financial stability, that shape preconception pregnancy preferences, and test how Desire to Avoid Pregnancy (DAP) scores predict new pregnancies in a cohort of 2,200 women.
- Examine how pregnancy preferences measured before conception relate to mental and physical maternal health outcomes among women who become pregnant, accounting for confounding factors that change over time.
- Compare health outcomes of pregnant women with matched non-pregnant women with similar preferences to test whether pregnancy's health harms are amplified among those who most desired to avoid it.
- Use structural equation models on three-year survey data from 12,000+ women in nine states to test whether DAP scores link life circumstances to contraceptive use, pregnancy and birth outcomes, including short interpregnancy intervals.
- Apply item response theory to develop a shorter DAP scale and evidence-based thresholds that define standardized groupings of pre-pregnancy preferences, as an alternative to the "unintended pregnancy" label.
More about the research
Earlier studies relied on snapshots taken at one point in time. They also asked women afterward whether a pregnancy was "intended", a yes/no label that misses ambivalence and uncertainty. Two linked projects use a new measure, the Desire to Avoid Pregnancy (DAP) scale, and long-term data to untangle these causes.
Why it matters
Knowing whether poor maternal health stems from unintended pregnancy itself or from the circumstances surrounding it could help target efforts to reduce maternal illness and death in the US. Short, validated pregnancy-preference tools with standard cutoffs could be used in surveillance and clinical care. The findings could also guide contraceptive access programs and policies supporting reproductive autonomy.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Celia Karp
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Public Health & Epidemiology
Develop gender-specific versions of the Desire to Avoid Pregnancy (DAP) scale with construct validity in Uganda, translating items into local languages for use with women and men.
Jayme Congdon
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Qualitatively assess, through interviews with about 50 postpartum women and healthcare team members, what they prefer in pediatric clinic-based postpartum contraceptive services.
Payal Chakraborty
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Quantify differences in unintended pregnancy rates by sexual orientation by combining data from two large national longitudinal cohorts.
The school
University of California-San Francisco: 89 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 164 research doctorates a year.
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