Abstract
This paper examines the association between social networks and contraceptive
use. Using data from a survey of women belonging to voluntary associations
in Yaounde, Cameroon, we find that the behavior and characteristics
of the members of a respondent's personal networks are associated
with her contraceptive use, over and above a set of her own individual
characteristics that are usually found to be important. Respondents
who report that their network partners approve of contraception,
use it, and encourage the respondent to use are more likely to use
contraception themselves; the association with encouragement is particularly
strong. Moreover, there is a strong association between the specific
methods of contraception used by a respondent and those used by her
network partners, suggesting that members of personal networks exchange
and evaluate specific methods. Because most of the respondent's network
partners were interviewed, we are able to compare the respondent's
perceptions of contraceptive use by her network partners with the
network partner's actual use. We find that it is perceptions of use
that matter, even if those perception are incorrect.
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