<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Family planning programs have made significant contributions to lowering fertility levels in several developing nations. These advances often focus on women as the main agents of population control, ignoring the important role of men. However, in many countries/cultures decisions about fertility are highly embedded in social relationships at all levels, which make it imperative to investigate men’s position in the social structure. This study explores the relationship structures between men in Bangladesh using social network analysis to explore new possibilities for cost-effective healthcare strategies that have more far-reaching effects than the status quo. The results of this research show that men are embedded in un-fragmented and diffuse communication structures, formed across age and educational divide, beyond the bounds of kinship relations and village boundaries. Not only do men not shy away from discussion of contraceptives, but also approve and support their use. Men’s networks, thus, provide a potentially rich, but untapped, channel of communication for effectively and efficiently disseminating population control initiatives.</p>
</abstract>

Family planning programs have made significant contributions to lowering fertility levels in several developing nations. These advances often focus on women as the main agents of population control, ignoring the important role of men. However, in many countries/cultures decisions about fertility are highly embedded in social relationships at all levels, which make it imperative to investigate men’s position in the social structure. This study explores the relationship structures between men in Bangladesh using social network analysis to explore new possibilities for cost-effective healthcare strategies that have more far-reaching effects than the status quo. The results of this research show that men are embedded in un-fragmented and diffuse communication structures, formed across age and educational divide, beyond the bounds of kinship relations and village boundaries. Not only do men not shy away from discussion of contraceptives, but also approve and support their use. Men’s networks, thus, provide a potentially rich, but untapped, channel of communication for effectively and efficiently disseminating population control initiatives.

Do Men Discuss Birth Control? A Social Network Analysis in Bangladesh

Journal of Social Structure

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Do Men Discuss Birth Control? A Social Network Analysis in Bangladesh"}

Family planning programs have made significant contributions to lowering fertility levels in several developing nations. These advances often focus on women as...

	Government programme		ICDDR,B programme
	Cluster A	Cluster B	Cluster C	Cluster D
Observation	83	106	145	96
Isolates	3	1	3	1
Number of components (>2 actors)	3	2	3	1
Mean no. of connections	2.2	2.3	3.5	2.7
Proportion of actors with one connection*	47.0%	50.0%	23.4%	36.5%
Density (std. dev.)	0.3	0.2	0.4	0.2
Density (std. dev.)	(0.4)	(0.3)	(0.3)	(0.3)
Total number of bi-components > 2 actors	5	4	8	4
% of actors in bi-components of > 2 actors	32.5%	36.8%	74.5%	56.3%
No. of nodes acting as cut points in bi-components of > 2 actors	1	1	3	3
No. of nodes acting as cut points	29	32	28	25

	Government programme		ICDDR,B programme
	Cluster A	Cluster B	Cluster C	Cluster D
Degree centrality (std. dev.)	2.2 (1.6)	2.3 (1.7)	3.5 (2.3)	2.7 (1.8)
Max. degree centrality score	6	7	12	9
Group degree centrality	4.7%	4.6%	3.0%	6.8%

Government programme	% of females	ICDDRB programme	% of females
Cluster A	2.40%	Cluster C	22.06%
Cluster B	20.80%	Cluster D	5.20%

	Government programme		ICDDR,B programme
	Cluster A	Cluster B	Cluster C	Cluster D
Pearson’s correlation between age and social connections	−0.13^*	−0.09^*	−0.08^*	−0.06^*
Pearson’s correlation between education and social connections	−0.04^**	−0.01	−0.05^*	−0.06^*
Proportion of connections to non-relatives	66%	53%	50%	64%
Proportion of connections outside the village	29%	41%	32%	33%
Pearson’s correlation between a bari residence and social connections	0.14^*	0.13^*	0.30^*	0.13^*

Do Men Discuss Birth Control? A Social Network Analysis in Bangladesh

Article Category: research-article

Pubblicato online: 27 mar 2019

Pagine: 1 - 19

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/joss-2019-002

© 2019 Bhanu Bhatia published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Figure 3:

Figure 4:

Basic network structure indicators for each cluster

Centrality

Percentage of females in each male social network

Homophily