Family size and malnutrition in Santo Domingo

A case-control study of 82 urban Dominican women with a malnourished child and 82 women with a well-nourished child of the same age, sex, and neighborhood of residence revealed that the women of the control group had significantly lower parity and also had fewer living children. More women in the case group had used contraception at one time. Nevertheless, the prevalence of current contraceptive use was identical in the two groups. More women in the control group had undergone one or more spontaneous or induced abortions. Although the women in both groups were selected from the same neighborhoods, there is evidence to suggest that the the women in the control group may have had higher family incomes. The higher incomes could well account, at least in part, for the difference in parity between the two groups as well as for the difference in nutritional status in the preschool children of the mothers of these groups.

The social consequences of teenage parenthood

The adolescent mothers consistently experienced great difficulty in realizing their life plans, when compared with their classmates who did not become pregnant premaritally in their early teens. Marital instability, school disruption, economic problems, and difficulty in family size regulation and child-rearing were some of the complications brought on by their premature, unscheduled childbearing.

The dilemma of family planning in a North Indian State

An empirical study of the family planning program and its clients in the rural areas of Allahabad Division of Uttar Pradesh in India was undertaken in 1971-1972. While family planning acceptance in this region is low, interviews with villagers and family planning staff suggest that organizational shortcomings of the program may help to explain the low level of acceptance. The reported level of contact between the program field staff and the village population was unexpectedly low. The paper discusses a number of administrative problems within the family planning organization, especially at the level of the primary health center. It is concluded that in designing family planning programs, efforts should be made to minimize organizational requirements.

Modernism and contraceptive use in Colombia

This analysis addresses the question of whether fertility can be lowered without the prior occurrence of the social and economic changes that have come to be labeled modernization. The data show that there exists in Colombia a relatively high level of motivation to control fertility that, for many women, is not coupled with both knowledge of and access to a method of contraception. For the "traditional" woman, the problem may not be lack of motivation so much as lack of access to methods that she is aware of, such as the pill, and lack of knowledge of methods that require few resources of supplies, such as rhythm and withdrawal.

Attitudes toward family planning, marriage, and family size among unmarried women in Korea

Data from the 1973 National Fertility and Family Planning Survey show that young unmarried women aged 18-27 desire small families and support family planning. These women express a lower son preference than did young currently married women surveved in 1973 and earlier. A majority of the respondents approve of the "stop at two" slogen of the family planning association, and they want to obtain more information about contraception before marrying. Unfortunately, survey results show that present sources of contraceptive information, including the schools, have not proved adequate.

The measurement and utility of the opinion leadership concept for family planning programs

The objectives of family planning educational programs often include information diffusion as well as attitude and behavior change within a target population. This paper suggests that working with opinion leaders might be one possible means of fulfilling these objectives. But in order to work with opinion leaders, it is necessary first to identify them. For family planning studies, the operational indicators used in past studies do not appear to be adequate. These indicators do not accurately identify persons who will take an opinion leadership behavior in the future, do not measure knowledge by the opinion leader, do not distinguish positive from negative opinion leaders, and do not take account of the bi-directional flow of information and advice both to and from the opinion leader. Drawing upon data from a family planning study in Baltimore, various examples for inadequate opinion leadership indicators are given. The paper suggests the need to revise these indicators and then outlines a simple and inexpensive program that might be used to channel the energies and activities of family planning opinion leaders towards the fulfillment of program objectives.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practice of family planning in Singapore

The First National Survey on Family Planning in Singapore was designed to gather data that would aid in evaluating the program of the National Family Planning and Population Board and the influence of government population policies on attitudes toward family planning. Interviews with 2,078 currently married women aged 15--44 revealed high levels of contraceptive knowledge and use, satisfaction of clinic users with the Board's services, and attitudes that favor greater acceptance of abortion and sterilization. Continued promotion of the concept of the two-child family appears necessary in light of divided opinions of respondents on this government recommendation.