The relationship of social affiliation and interpersonal discussion to family planning knowledge, attitudes and practice

Context: Past research has demonstrated an association between membership in a social club and the adoption of family planning, yet little is known about the how these groups promote the diffusion of such behavior. Methods: Data on 2,217 women aged 15-49 and 2,152 men aged 15-54 from the 1994 Kenya Situation Survey are used to examine the role of communication within individuals' social networks in mediating the association between club membership and awareness, approval and use of family planning. Results: In analyses accounting for demographic factors, women club members were 2.3 times as likely as nonmembers to know about modern methods of family planning, and male club members were 1.5 times as likely as nonmembers to know about modern contraceptives and 1.7 times as likely as nonmembers to approve of family planning. Club membership was not directly associated with increased use of contraceptives, but among both men and women, participation in a club was associated with significantly greater odds of having family planning discussions with members of both core and extended social networks. Women who had discussed family planning with both core and extended network members were 8.3 times as likely to be currently using modern contraceptives, and men who had done so were 3.2 times as likely as were those who had limited such discussions to their core network only: Conclusions: By promoting informal discussions about family planning within a group with a diverse membership, social clubs play a mediating role in the diffusion of new information and innovative behaviors.