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September 2002, Vol. 8, No. 2 Social Effects Population Council researchers are exploring the theory that behaviors related to contraceptive practices can be contagious. Like viruses, ideas and practices vary in their “infectiousness.” Under the right circumstances, people may adopt certain attitudes and behaviors after exposure to only one or two people exhibiting them. Other ideas and behaviors may be much less infectious. Although it may seem obvious that people’s reproductive behaviors are influenced by those of their peers, few researchers have investigated the magnitude of these social effects. Population Council researchers John B. Casterline, Mark R. Montgomery, and Paul C. Hewett collaborated with scientists at the University of Cape Coast in southern Ghana and other Council investigators to explore contraceptive use as a form of social contagion. They recently published their first analysis of data from this study. Innovative behaviors The researchers selected six communities in southern Ghana that are isolated from each other and that provide diversity in ecological setting, economic activity, ethnicity, and kinship systems. They conducted baseline interviews in 1998 of women who were aged 18 through 50, irrespective of marital status, along with the male partners of those women in formal unions. Four out of six rounds of collected data have been analyzed. The present analysis deals with the 881 married women who were interviewed and not pregnant during all four rounds, resulting in 15,024 woman-months of observation. (The researchers did not include pregnant women because such women would not be using contraception, which was the behavior they wanted to study.) “In addition to interviewing study participants in detail about their social networks, we asked about their exposure to mass media, their geographic mobility, and their contact with health and family planning workers. We also noted other likely determinants of contraceptive practice, such as schooling of the respondent and her husband,” says Montgomery. “Thus, we can tease out the relative effects of all these variables.” With respect to their social networks, women were queried about people other than their husband or partner whose opinions are important to them. They were also asked about friends and associates with whom they discuss modern contraception. Interviewers recorded all the names that the respondents volunteered. Extensive information was then gathered about the first four persons named, particularly information about fertility and contraception, such as whether the respondent felt that her associate approved of modern contraception or had used modern contraception. Each respondent was also asked whether she and her close associates had ever encouraged or discouraged each other from using modern contraception. Social diffusion In addition, the researchers found that the association between fertility and the schooling of either the husband or wife—a link that is strong in many areas of the world—is weak in this region. “Approval or use of family planning does not seem to be influenced by exposure to the media or travel to urban areas either,” says Hewett. In contrast, receiving encouraging advice from a health or family planning worker is strongly associated with use of modern contraception. This research has important implications for the design and evaluation of health and family planning programs. Social diffusion processes can act as “social multipliers” that amplify the influence of any given intervention. Programs that are designed to capitalize on diffusion effects can therefore have a larger influence. Further, scientific evaluations of program influence will not give programs enough credit for social change if the social multiplier effect is not taken into account. Source Outside funding | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
