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NORC at the University Chicago

The Indiana University Abortion Attitudes Project

Young people at college during break time. Boys and girls sitting on stairs in university campus.
A multi-year study aimed at developing and testing measures to assess abortion attitudes
  • Client
    Indiana University
  • Dates
    2018 - 2024

Problem

Abortion is a nuanced and complex issue, which makes measuring abortion attitudes challenging.

People’s attitudes toward abortion are complex and multi-dimensional and current measures are not designed to capture such nuance. In 2018, NORC began working with researchers from the Department of Applied Health Science at Indiana University Bloomington’s School of Public Health on the Indiana University (IU) Abortion Attitudes Project. The project aims to develop and assess measures for social surveys related to sexual and reproductive health.

Solution

NORC is collaborating with IU researchers to develop and test new questionnaire items to measure attitudes toward abortion.

The IU Abortion Attitudes Project is a multi-year study aimed at developing and psychometrically assessing scales and survey items to measure abortion attitudes for use in well-regarded national polls and surveys (e.g., General Social Survey, Gallup, Pew). Given the linguistic diversity of the US population, measures are being developed in both English and Spanish.

The project team also comprises faculty, staff, students, and collaborators in other disciplines at Indiana University, the University of Arkansas, and other academic and professional institutions.

Result

The project is ongoing.

The latest results can be found on the Developing and Accessing Measures for Social Surveys (DAMSS) Partner Website Dissemination: IU Abortion Attitudes Project (DAMSS): Indiana University.

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