The Role of Husband-Wife Communication in Family Planning

Abstract

The following hypotheses were tested on data obtained through sample surveys in the Indian states of Haryana Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya: 1) the levels of knowledge and adoption of family planning are positively related to the frequency of husband-wife communication concerning birth control; 2) interspouse communication is associated with favorability to small family size norm and family planning practices; 3) interspouse communication increases with the level of education; and 4) the longer the duration of respondents marriage the greater the frequency of her communication with the husband. A precoded interview schedule was used to collect the data from the 1872 married women in these states. Over 67% of the surveyed women from the Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya rural strata had not discussed family planning even once with their husbands. In the urban areas the corresponding figures were 61.8 and 61.4% respectively. With certain exceptions the results support all but the 4th hypothesis. Except in Meghalaya a large number of respondents from the noncommunicating group reported incidence of unplanned pregnancies. Long hours of work outside the home emerged as 1 of the most crucial barriers to communication in 4 out of 6 samples. The lack of effective husband-wife communication reported implies a low salience of the family-planning issues particularly in the rural areas. Such situations could be immediately countered by involving opinion leaders and satisfied family planning users and helping them to carry the family planning message to other community members. Except in Meghalaya the rated frequency of husband-wife communication regarding family planning is significantly related to the awareness and knowledge of contraceptive devices.