The main purpose of this study is to assess the degree of marital communication about family planning by focusing on preferences regarding family size and the desire for additional children. Analysis of the impact of marital communication on family planning shows that the partner who discusses family planning is more likely not to want more children than their counterparts who have never discussed the issue.
ACRONYMS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
- STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
- THE RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
- OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
- ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY
There are a number of constraints that cause low levels of modern contraception as well as spousal communication about family planning in Rwanda. So far, no study has been conducted in Rwanda on family planning communication about desired fertility.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
SPOUSAL COMMUNICATION ABOUT FAMILY PLANNING
- FACTORS INFLUENCING SPOUSAL COMMUNICATION
- ROLE OF MAN IN FAMILY PLANNING
- Husband opposes contraceptive use
- Difficulties associated with couple communication about contraceptive use
Some women are lucky and are able to make decisions about family planning and family size in collaboration with their husbands. The study shows that less than 40 percent of currently married Togolese women have ever discussed family planning with their husbands.
ATTITUDES TOWARDS FAMILY PLANNING AND DESIRED FERTILITY
At least 50 percent of women and 38.1 percent of men indicated that they had discussed family planning issues with their spouses on three or more occasions. Turning to actual fertility, they noted that women who 'always', 'sometimes' or never approve of family planning had 6.12 births, respectively. Approval is also related to the woman's perception of her husband's attitude towards family planning.
Among women who "always sometimes" or never approve of family planning, 59.1 percent, 32.2 percent, and 8.4 percent, respectively, thought their husbands would approve of them using family planning to delay another pregnancy. However, only 29.8 percent and 18.2 percent of women, respectively, thought their husbands would approve of them using family planning to delay another pregnancy or stop having children.
COMMUNICATION AND DESIRED FERTILITY
- GENDER DIFFERENCE AND REPRODUCTIVE PREFERENCE
- FAMILY SIZE PREFERENCE
- NUMBER OF CHILDREN AS A KEY REPRODUCTIVE GOAL
Rather, they were motivated by the economic benefits associated with having children, regardless of their gender, and those couples who already have multiple sons may be more likely to desire more children because of the perceived economic utility of sons. Couples with more daughters may be more likely to stop childbearing sooner because of the financial responsibility of having more daughters. An alternative hypothesis explaining the positive relationship between the number of sons and fertility is that, despite a strong preference for sons, couples with more daughters may not risk having an additional child due to the fear that the child may be another daughter (ibid).
An alternative hypothesis explaining the positive association between the number of sons and fertility is that, despite a strong preference for sons, couples with several daughters may not risk having an additional child due to the fear that the child could be another daughter (ibid). First, it is a measure of fertility desires; there is no measure that provides an equally effective index of the potential for change in family size in developing countries (Ware, 1974).
ECONOMIC VALUE OF CHILDREN
The economic value of children, defined in terms of the money, goods and labor they provide to their parents and family, has declined over time (Mhloyi, 1994). High levels of urban unemployment, increased migration, and to some extent, a decline in family solidarity have all reduced the economic value of children to their aging parents. In the past, older children in Zimbabwe paid much of the cost of raising and educating their younger siblings, but such support has become tenuous in recent years (ibid).
Children's physical obligations to their parents gradually give way to monetary obligations. The continuity and perpetuation of the family name remains the exclusive function of the boys, who are expected to provide the parents with some kind of old-age security.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
- SOURCE OF DATA
- SAMPLE DESIGN
- INSTRUMENTATION
- DATA ANALYSIS
French, English and Swahili were spoken by only 3.9 percent, 1.9 percent and 3 percent of the population respectively. In the country's urban areas, the proportion of literate residents is higher than those in rural areas, 76.7 percent versus 56.6 percent. Furthermore, the financial sector has not developed any interest in rural areas.
The main purpose of the household questionnaire was to identify eligible women and men for the individual interview. The men's questionnaire collected much of the same information found in the women's questionnaire, but was shorter because it was not a.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS
INTRODUCTION
SAMPLE
FINDINGS
In the current sample, only 11.4 percent of women and 14.3 percent of men have completed high school. The overall ratio of women and men wanting more children after two years is the highest compared to other categories among women and men. There was a small percentage among those who declared infertile, indecisive, uncertain timing and those who wanted more children within two years.
According to table 4.4, it was found that 40.1 percent of married women had never discussed family planning with their husbands in the twelve months before the survey. Table 4.5 shows the results of information collected from women and men regarding their current employment situation.
SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHICS FACTORS ACCORDING TO THE PLACE OF RESIDENCE
In general, urban-rural differences are smaller among men and women who both adopt family planning. For example, 38 percent of urban women and 34 percent of rural women who approve of family planning say they want to end childbearing. There is similarity in the ratio of women and men who approve of family planning and those who both do not, which means that urban-rural differences are small at 18 percent and 13 percent respectively.
Perhaps the most striking difference in the findings in Table 4.8 is the substantial gap in the desire to have no more children among couples in which only men approved of family planning. If their preferences could be served, 100 percent of urban men who approved of family planning would not have children, but only 33 percent of their wives agreed.
Multiple Regression Analysis
The odds ratios are the measure of the odds that couples would prefer to have no more children based on the independent variables. Urban women are twice as likely to no longer want children as rural women (model 2). In both models, no education is the reference category; the chance of wanting to have children increases as the level of education increases.
Surprisingly, there is an association between rural husbands' employment and the desire to have no more children that is significant at the one percent level, while it is not significant for rural wives. This finding deserves further research to determine why rural men do not want more children.
DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS
Communication about family planning and family size is a significant co-modifier of the desire not to have more children. Additionally in Table 4.6 and 4.9, women are more likely to approve of family planning than their men, 75.3 percent of women approved of family planning while only 55.7 percent of men approved of family planning.
The desire for no more children seems to be higher among men than women, 34 percent of men who approved of family planning did not want to have more children, while 28.4 of women who approved of family planning did not want to have more children. Controlling for other factors, results of this study indicate a strong relationship between both joint approval and discussion of family planning by couples and desire not to have more children.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
CONCLUSION
There is a similarity between education and employment because people with high levels of education are more likely to get a job. Therefore, the percentage of spouses who were employed and no longer wanted children was higher than those who were unemployed and no longer wanted children. more children, 34.7 percent and 28.7 percent respectively. The percentage of couples that no longer want children increases with the number of sons compared to the number of daughters. Furthermore, analysis of the impact of spousal communication on family planning shows that spouses who discuss family planning are more likely to no longer wish to have children than their counterparts who have not discussed the issue.
In Model 2, when “no discussion” is the reference category, women are 0.564 times more likely to not want to have more children than those who have both discussed family planning, compared to those who have never discussed family planning (Model 2). According to Table 4.6, the percentage of couples where both husbands and wives approve of family planning is higher in urban areas than in rural areas, 67.7 percent and 50 percent respectively.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The results of this study show that men are less likely than women to agree to family planning in Rwanda. Change in the current design of family planning clinics to allow the presence of husbands with their wives in the clinics. This could promote better communication between husbands and wives as husbands will become more aware of their wives' problems and health needs.
The training should help providers resolve ethical dilemmas, such as which side the provider should take when a husband and wife disagree on a certain issue. IEC implementation is a strategy that can increase dialogue between husband and wife and awareness of the burden of raising children, spacing between births and limiting childbearing.
Some evidence against the hypothesis that approval of family planning is related to the frequency of spousal discussions about the topic. Intermarital communication on family planning as a factor in the use of modern contraception in Bangladesh, Journal of Family Welfare. Family planning knowledge, endorsement, and communication as correlates of desired fertility among married couples in Pakistan.
Family Planning in Rwanda: Status and Prospects, Studies in Family Planning Factors Affecting the Use of Contraception in Sub-Saharan Africa. How attitudes toward family planning and discussion between wives and husbands influence contraceptive use in Ghana.
