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. 2019 Apr;64(4S):S31-S36.
doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.12.020. Epub 2019 Mar 20.

Beyond Individual-Level Theorizing in Social Norms Research: How Collective Norms and Media Access Affect Adolescents' Use of Contraception

Erica Sedlander  1 , Rajiv N Rimal  2
Affiliations

Beyond Individual-Level Theorizing in Social Norms Research: How Collective Norms and Media Access Affect Adolescents' Use of Contraception

Erica Sedlander et al. J Adolesc Health. 2019 Apr.

Abstract

Purpose: The role of mass media in promoting social norms surrounding contraceptive use among adolescents in developing countries has not received much attention. Hence, program planners have little guidance on how to design media messages that take advantage of existing social norms in promoting contraceptive use.

Methods: We analyzed data from the Demographic and Health Surveys in Ethiopia and Tanzania, restricting our sample to 15- to 24 year-old adolescents (N = 6,230 and N = 5,138, respectively). We proposed and tested the hypotheses that collective norms around contraception use would be associated with individual contraception use in that area and that this relationship would be stronger when media use is low, than when media use is high. Logistic regressions were run to predict individual-level contraception use from collective norms for contraception use, media use, and their interaction, controlling for age, urban versus rural location, marital status, wealth, and education, taking into account intraclass correlations within clusters.

Results: Collective norms were associated with individual contraception use in both samples. Media use attenuated the association between collective norms and contraception use in Ethiopia but not in Tanzania. (β = -.22, p = < .01 in Ethiopia and β = -.08, p = .10 in Tanzania).

Conclusions: Mass media can serve as external agents of change to attenuate the impact of collective norms on individual behavior. A deeper examination of how and why media use attenuates the relationship between collective norms and individual contraception use in some subpopulations more than others is warranted.

Keywords: Adolescent health; Collective norms; Contraceptive use; Mass media.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Relationship between contraception use community norms (CUCN) and use of contraceptives for low and high media users in Ethiopia. The relationship between collective norms and individual contraception use is stronger among adolescents with low media use than adolescents with high media use.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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