One explanation for the lack of contraception use among adolescents is that young women may feel embarrassment or rejection by their partners if they initiate the use of contraception. To explore young adults' reactions to contraceptive use, 160 college students evaluated a description of an unmarried young couple which varied the length of time they had dated each other before having sex, gender of person initiating contraception, and whether the use of contraceptives was planned or unplanned. Students were asked to make a number of evaluations from the perspective of the man and woman in the story. Results showed that female evaluators, more than male evaluators, tended to assume that a sexually active woman's partner would have less positive regard for her. Females also typically thought that the man would think less of his partner than a woman would of hers. Male evaluators made no such distinction, but assumed that the man and woman would have equally high regard for one another. Whether or not the woman initiated or planned contraceptive use had little effect upon evaluators' assumptions about her partner's regard for her. The findings suggest that women may be overly pessimistic about males' responses to contraceptively assertive females. (JAC)