Colleran Heidi, Mace Ruth
Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse School of Economics, 21 allee de Brienne, Toulouse 31015, France Department of Anthropology, University College London, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK
Department of Anthropology, University College London, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK.
Proc Biol Sci. 2015 May 22;282(1807):20150398. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2015.0398.
The diffusion of 'modern' contraceptives-as a proxy for the spread of low-fertility norms-has long interested researchers wishing to understand global fertility decline. A fundamental question is how local cultural norms and other people's behaviour influence the probability of contraceptive use, independent of women's socioeconomic and life-history characteristics. However, few studies have combined data at individual, social network and community levels to simultaneously capture multiple levels of influence. Fewer still have tested if the same predictors matter for different contraceptive types. Here, we use new data from 22 high-fertility communities in Poland to compare predictors of the use of (i) any contraceptives-a proxy for the decision to control fertility-with those of (ii) 'artificial' contraceptives-a subset of more culturally taboo methods. We find that the contraceptive behaviour of friends and family is more influential than are women's own characteristics and that community level characteristics additionally influence contraceptive use. Highly educated neighbours accelerate women's contraceptive use overall, but not their artificial method use. Highly religious neighbours slow women's artificial method use, but not their contraceptive use overall. Our results highlight different dimensions of sociocultural influence on contraceptive diffusion and suggest that these may be more influential than are individual characteristics. A comparative multilevel framework is needed to understand these dynamics.
“现代”避孕药具的传播——作为低生育率规范传播的一个代表——长期以来一直吸引着希望了解全球生育率下降情况的研究人员。一个基本问题是，当地文化规范和其他人的行为如何独立于女性的社会经济和生活史特征，影响使用避孕药具的概率。然而，很少有研究将个体、社会网络和社区层面的数据结合起来，以同时捕捉多个层面的影响。更少的研究检验了相同的预测因素对不同类型避孕药具是否重要。在这里，我们使用来自波兰22个高生育率社区的新数据，比较（i）任何避孕药具（作为控制生育决定的代表）与（ii）“人工”避孕药具（更具文化禁忌性方法的一个子集）使用的预测因素。我们发现，朋友和家人的避孕行为比女性自身特征更具影响力，而且社区层面的特征也会额外影响避孕药具的使用。受过高等教育的邻居总体上会加速女性使用避孕药具，但不会加速她们使用人工避孕方法。宗教信仰浓厚的邻居会减缓女性使用人工避孕方法，但不会减缓她们总体上使用避孕药具。我们的研究结果突出了社会文化对避孕药具传播影响的不同维度，并表明这些维度可能比个体特征更具影响力。需要一个比较性的多层次框架来理解这些动态变化。
