DOHERTY, EMITA TERESA; PHD
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, 1990
WOMEN'S STUDIES (0453); EDUCATION, ADULT AND CONTINUING (0516); SOCIOLOGY,
DEMOGRAPHY (0938)
The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which E. M. Rogers'
diffusion of innovations
model explained the differences between family planning adopters and family
planning resistors from a
sample of indigent Honduran women. Using the chain referral method and a convenience
sample of
mothers at a public hospital, the investigator interviewed 92 Honduran women.
She used frequency
counts, chi square, and correlation coefficients to analyze the data and the
0.05 level of significance and
beyond to test group differences. One hundred percent of the study participants
knew of the
contraceptive pill as a family planning method. Fewer knew of other methods.
Ninety-seven percent of
the interviewees felt that couples should use family planning to space pregnancies,
but 36% felt that
using planning methods was too difficult. Eighty-one percent perceived that
contraceptives were
potentially more harmful than pregnancy or childbirth. Adopters and resistors
of planning methods did
not differ significantly by religious affiliation, religiousness, conflict with
religious beliefs, or perceived
approval of others. The two groups differed significantly on other variables:
Consistent with the diffusion
of innovations model, resistors of family planning (innovation adoption 'laggards')
appeared less
advantaged than adopters. Women over 29 years of age who had never used a planning
method had
had significantly more pregnancies, more living children, and had experienced
more child deaths. They
also had fewer years of schooling and were more likely to be in a consensual
union than married. Rogers'
model predicted that when people understand an innovation poorly they often
misuse the innovation
which contributes to negative beliefs about it. In this study all artificial
means of birth control were rumored
to be carcinogenic, and a large number of study participants believed that the
pill and intrauterine devices
were ineffective. Failure rates for these two methods was high. The study findings
indicate that family
planning education must go beyond simply informing women on the availability
of birth control methods.
Educational leaders must design programs that inform women on how methods work,
and perhaps more
important, family planning education must address negative beliefs regarding
planning methods.
Social
Systems Simulation Group
P.O. Box 6904 San Diego, CA 92166-0904 Roland Werner, Principal Phone/FAX (619) 660-1603 |