Social networks, ideation, and contraceptive behavior in Bangladesh: a longitudinal analysis.

Longitudinal survey data from a panel of married women in Bangladesh is used to estimate the impact of a social network approach to family planning field worker communication and to test a theoretical model of behavior change that explains why women adopt modern contraceptives. Government field workers were trained to organize group discussions with women in the homes of opinion leaders located at central points in each village's social network. A set of intervening variables, referred to collectively as 'ideation', are derived from diffusion of innovation and social network theory to explain how the social network approach affects contraceptive behavior. The rate of increase in modern contraceptive use was found to be five times greater among women in the social network approach than among women who were visited by field workers at home. The impact of the social network approach on modern contraceptive use was almost double that of conventional field worker visits after controlling for the effects of prior contraceptive use and intention, prior home visits, and selected socio-demographic characteristics. Both approaches had the same degree of impact on ideation. The results confirm the influence of ideation on fertility change and suggest that family planning programs would benefit from training field workers to use a social network approach.

Changing men's attitudes and behavior: the Zimbabwe Male Motivation Project.

A multimedia communication campaign was conducted between 1988 and 1989 to promote family planning among men in Zimbabwe. The campaign consisted of a 52-episode semiweekly radio soap opera, about 60 motivational talks, and two pamphlets about contraceptive methods. Changes over time were measured by comparing a subset of a follow-up survey conducted from October to December 1989 to a baseline survey conducted from April to June 1988. Men exposed to the campaign were also compared to men who were not exposed. The follow-up survey revealed that the campaign reached 52 percent of men aged 18 to 55. Among married Shona-speaking men, use of modern contraceptive methods increased from about 56 percent to 59 percent during the campaign. Condom use increased from about 5 percent to 10 percent. Awareness and current use of modern contraceptives was also higher among men exposed to the campaign, primarily because of their greater awareness of condoms. Men exposed to the campaign were significantly more likely than other men to make the decision to use family planning and to say that both spouses should decide how many children to have.

Mass media family planning promotion in three Nigerian cities.

Television promotion of family planning and clinic sites in three cities of Nigeria--Ilorin, Ibadan, and Enugu--played a significant role in 1985-88 in increasing the number of new acceptors at family planning clinics in each city. Family planning skits, prepared with advice and support from the local service providers, were included in existing popular entertainment shows. Questions asked in a recall survey among the exposed population in Enugu and Ibadan revealed that about half of those surveyed in both cities had seen the television episodes. Of those who had watched, 79 and 99 percent, respectively, recalled the family planning messages, and 69 and 88 percent, respectively, recalled specific clinic sites mentioned. Following the media promotion, the number of new clinic clients per quarter in Ilorin increased almost fivefold (in the original clinics evaluated); in Enugu, the number of new clients per month more than doubled; and in Ibadan, the number of new clients increased threefold. Use of entertainment through this "enter-educate approach" is a promising technique that can be replicated in different settings to encourage new clients to seek family planning services.

How should vasectomy be promoted in Guatemala?

PIP: In the article "Evaluation of a Communications Program to Increase Adoption of Vasectomy in Guatemala" by J.T. Bertrand et al (Stud Fam Plann 1987 Nov/Dec), the authors conclude that the use of a male promoter alone was 4 times more cost-effective in increasing the number of vasectomies than the use of radio alone because the costs of the radio program were 4 times higher. This conclusion is questionable for several reasons. 1) The district where the promoter was used alone was twice as large as the radio-only district. 2) In one of the promoter-only districts the same promoter worked throughout the program, but in the other, 3 different promoters had to be recruited and trained, due to high personnel turnover. 3) The initial costs of a radio program may be higher, but 1 program can be broadcast in all districts with little or no extra cost, whereas the costs of a promoter would have to be multiplied by the number of districts. 4) Although the promoter and the radio program produced approximately equal numbers of vasectomies, the radio messages reached over 70% of the people surveyed. Thus, on a national basis, radio broadcasts would be far more cost-effective than the use of salaried promoters in each district.^ieng

The cultural convergence of Korean immigrants in Hawaii: an empirical test of a mathematical theory.

PIP: This paper presents a conceptual model developed by human-communication researchers that provides a description of human cultural and cognitive processes. The processes are at once useful, informative, quantitative, and compatible with the emerging thermodynamic models of nonequilibrium processes. It uses empirical results of a survey on Korean immigrants in Hawaii to illustrate a mathematical theory of cultural convergence as described by Woelfel (1980), Woelfel and Fink (1980), and Barnett and Kincaid (1983). The convergence model of communication enables cultural processes to be subsumed within the laws of thermodynamics. Together, these models predict that the members of a social system who share information with one another about a given topic will over time develop more similar conceptions of that topic. The main purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis which states that if cultural systems behave according to the law of convergence, then, like the particle suspended by an extended spring, the divergent subculture will tend to converge over time toward the position of maximum negentropy, which is the average (equilibrium) position for the society as a whole.^ieng