Abstract

PIP: In an attempt to examine the fertility response of women in Pakistan when they are exposed to different types and varying numbers of communication media, data from the National Impact Survey of 1968-1969 were analyzed. As systematic efforts in the family planning program were initiated only in 1965, the study covers a short period of program operation. The effort is made to supplement the findings of the experimental studies that have been documented to date and to carry out an indepth analysis at the national level for various cross sections of the population. Data for the rural and urban samples of currently married women were analyzed. In the analysis of the fertility behavior as it is affected by the type and intensity of media exposure, 1st the sources which were reported to have imparted the family planning message were examined and then an attempt was made to analyze the effect of exposure to different types and varying numbers of media on attitudes, ever use and children ever-born (CEB). The most notable findings of the analysis were the following: 1) there was a positive (significant) association between intensity of exposure to communication media and favorable attitudes towards family planning and contraceptive use; 2) intensity of exposure did not have any effect on the children ever born or children born during the previous 5 years; 3) obtaining initial knowledge of family planning from friends and relatives had an unexpected negative effect on contraceptive use; and 4) exposure to mass media channels (as the initial information source) seems to have had a significant negative effect on recent fertility, particularly in the urban areas, but this effect does not work through contraception.