| dc.description.abstract | This study focuses on the interaction between use of family
planning methods and old age parental expectation of social and
economic benefits from their children on one hand and availability
and quality of family planning factors on the other. The study has
four objectives. It first examines the effect of old age parental
expectation of social and economic benefits from their children on
approval and use of contraceptives. Secondly, the study also
examines the relationship between approval and use of contraceptive
methods and the background socio-economic (level of educational
attainment), socio-cultural (opinion of the respondents' husbands
on their wives practising family planning) and demographic ( desire
for more children, parity and age) factors. The last two objectives
attempt to examine the effect of availability and quality of family
planning services on contraceptive use.
The study utilised the 1992 Kenya Fertility Decline Survey
data collected from a sample of 720 rural women married to male
heads of households under 55 years of age. Cross tabulation, chisquare
statistic and log-linear logistic regression methods have
been used to analyze data.
The cross tabulation results show that the respondents'
approval of spouses to use family planning to delay pregnancy was
very high. However, the chi-square test showed that parental
expectation to live with one of their children was significant in
explaining approval of spouses to use family planning to delay
pregnancy. The majority of non-current users of contraceptive
methods expected regular financial or farm work assistance from
their children and also to live with one of their children in old
age. The chi-square test showed that the relationship between old
age parental expectation of financial assistance from their
children and farm work assistance from their sons and current
contraceptive use, was significant at .05. The chi-square test
further showed that the relationship between approval of spouses to
use family planning methods to delay pregnancy and the background
variables namely: level of educational attainment, opinion of the
respondents' husbands on their wives practicing family planning,
and desire for another child was significant.
Assessment of total travel time as an indicator of
availability of family planning services was found to be
significant in explaining current contraceptive use in terms of the
chi-square test.
'In logistic regression analysis, parental uncertainty in
expecting farm work assistance as compared to definite expectation
of regular farm work assistance from their sons in old age,
favourable opinion of the respondents' husbands on their wives
practicing family planning relative to when the husbands are
against family planning, disapproval as compared to approval of
spouses to use family planning to delay pregnancy, Primary and
secondary education as compared to no level of educational
attainment and desire for no more children relative to desire for
more children were among the most significant determinants of the
use of family planning-methods: All the above except disapproval
of spouses to use family planning to delay pregnancy, increased the
odds of current use.
The results point to the fact that the background factors:
husbands opinion, level of educational attainment and desire for no
more children are the significant determinants of the odds of
current contraceptive use in rural Kenya. However, the value of
children in terms of social and economic old age security does not
currently appear as a significant determinant of current
contraceptive use in rural Kenya. Higher levels of contraceptive
use can be achieved by increased socio-economic development aimed
at alleviation of poverty and ignorance. However, further follow-up
study needs to be carried out first to establish other factors
responsible for non-current use of contraceptives among respondents
who would always approve family planing but are not current users
and secondly to determine whether the respondents who indicated
that they did not want another child had attained their desired
family size or had excess number of children. | en |
