Social networks and contraception practice of women in rural Bangladesh

Gayen, Kaberi; Raeside, Robert

Abstract

This paper analyzed the association of social networks with contraceptive use using both structural and attitudinal properties of social networks. Data were collected from seven villages in rural Bangladesh by face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire (N = 694). Sociometric data and the centrality positions of women in their social networks were analyzed as proxies for structural properties, and the perception of network members’ approval and encouragement towards family planning as attitudinal properties. The perception of network members’ attitude towards family planning and power within networks was found to be positively associated with contraception use. The strong association of the social network members’ encouragement of contraception and the significance over both in-degree (number of nominations received by the participant from other village women) and out-degree centrality (number of nominations given by a participant) provides further confirmation that immediate network members’ attitude is important to explain current contraceptive use of women in rural Bangladesh.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Aug 30, 2010
• Publication Date: 2010-11
• Deposit Date: Apr 28, 2011
• Journal: Social Science and Medicine
• Print ISSN: 0277-9536
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 71
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 1584-1592
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.08.002
• Keywords: History and Philosophy of Science; Health(social science)
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/4371
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.08.002