IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v19y2008i55.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond denomination: The relationship between religion and family planning in rural Malawi

Author

Listed:
  • Sara Yeatman

    (University of Colorado Denver)

  • Jenny Trinitapoli

    (University of Chicago)

Abstract

Despite the centrality of religion and fertility to life in rural Africa, the relationship between the two remains poorly understood. The study presented here uses unique integrated individual- and congregational-level data from rural Malawi to examine religious influences on contraceptive use. In this religiously diverse population, we find evidence that the particular characteristics of a congregation—leader’s positive attitudes toward family planning and discussion of sexual morality, which do not fall along broad denominational lines—are more relevant than denominational categories for predicting women’s contraceptive use. We further find evidence for a relationship between religious socialization and contraceptive behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Sara Yeatman & Jenny Trinitapoli, 2008. "Beyond denomination: The relationship between religion and family planning in rural Malawi," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(55), pages 1851-1882.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:19:y:2008:i:55
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2008.19.55
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol19/55/19-55.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2008.19.55?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karen Mason, 1997. "Explaining fertility transitions," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 34(4), pages 443-454, November.
    2. William Mosher & Gerry Hendershot, 1984. "Religion and fertility: A replication," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 21(2), pages 185-191, May.
    3. Hans-Peter Kohler, 1997. "Learning in social networks and contraceptive choice," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 34(3), pages 369-383, August.
    4. Tomas Frejka & Charles F. Westoff, 2008. "Religion, Religiousness and Fertility in the US and in Europe," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 24(1), pages 5-31, March.
    5. Jere Behrman & Hans-Peter Kohler & Susan Watkins, 2002. "Social networks and changes in contraceptive use over time: Evidence from a longitudinal study in rural Kenya," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 39(4), pages 713-738, November.
    6. S. Philip Morgan & Sharon Stash & Herbert L. Smith & Karen Oppenheim Mason, 2002. "Muslim and Non‐Muslim Differences in Female Autonomy and Fertility: Evidence from Four Asian Countries," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 28(3), pages 515-537, September.
    7. Kevin McQuillan, 2004. "When Does Religion Influence Fertility?," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 30(1), pages 25-56, March.
    8. Barbara Entwisle & Ronald Rindfuss & David Guilkey & Aphichat Chamratrithirong & Sara Curran & Yothin Sawangdee, 1996. "Community and contraceptive choice in rural Thailand: A case study of Nang Rong," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 33(1), pages 1-11, February.
    9. Cohen, Barney, 2000. "Family Planning Programs, Socioeconomic Characteristics, and Contraceptive Use in Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 843-860, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Klaus Prettner & Holger Strulik, 2017. "It's a Sin—Contraceptive Use, Religious Beliefs, and Long-run Economic Development," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 543-566, August.
    2. Alexander A. Weinreb, 2014. "Heterophily in rural Malawi," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 31(50), pages 1477-1502.
    3. Anais Bertrand-Dansereau & Shelley Clark, 2016. "Pragmatic tradition or romantic aspiration? The causes of impulsive marriage and early divorce among women in rural Malawi," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 35(3), pages 47-80.
    4. Connor, Dylan, 2021. "In the name of the father? Fertility, religion and child naming in the demographic transition," SocArXiv jndqu, Center for Open Science.
    5. Rock, Amelia & Barrington, Clare & Abdoulayi, Sara & Tsoka, Maxton & Mvula, Peter & Handa, Sudhanshu, 2016. "Social networks, social participation, and health among youth living in extreme poverty in rural Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 55-62.
    6. Jesman Chintsanya & Monica Magadi & Gloria Likupe, 2021. "A Multilevel Analysis of Risk and Protective Factors for Adolescent Childbearing in Malawi," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-19, August.
    7. Sam Hyun Yoo & Victor Agadjanian, 2021. "The paradox of change: Religion and fertility decline in South Korea," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(23), pages 537-562.
    8. Sarah Walters, 2016. "Counting Souls," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(3), pages 63-108.
    9. Victor Agadjanian & Scott Yabiku, 2014. "Religious Affiliation and Fertility in a Sub-Saharan Context: Dynamic and Lifetime Perspectives," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 33(5), pages 673-691, October.
    10. Jimi Adams & Jenny Trinitapoli, 2009. "The Malawi Religion Project:," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 21(10), pages 255-288.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sam Hyun Yoo & Victor Agadjanian, 2021. "The paradox of change: Religion and fertility decline in South Korea," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(23), pages 537-562.
    2. Pablo Brañas-Garza & Shoshana Neuman, 2007. "Parental religiosity and daughters’ fertility: the case of Catholics in southern Europe," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 305-327, September.
    3. H Peyton Young, 2014. "The Evolution of Social Norms," Economics Series Working Papers 726, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    4. Jere Behrman & Hans-Peter Kohler & Susan C. Watkins, 2003. "Social Networks, HIV/AIDS and Risk Perceptions," PIER Working Paper Archive 03-007, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    5. Vegard Skirbekk & Marcin Stonawski & Setsuya Fukuda & Thomas Spoorenberg & Conrad Hackett & Raya Muttarak, 2015. "Is Buddhism the low fertility religion of Asia?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(1), pages 1-28.
    6. Heidi Colleran & Ruth Mace, 2015. "Social network and community level influences on contraceptive use: evidence from rural Poland," Post-Print hal-04313952, HAL.
    7. Gayen, Kaberi & Raeside, Robert, 2010. "Social networks and contraception practice of women in rural Bangladesh," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(9), pages 1584-1592, November.
    8. Carranza, Eliana, 2012. "Islamic inheritance law, son preference and fertility behavior of Muslim couples in Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5972, The World Bank.
    9. Barbara S. Okun, 2013. "Fertility and marriage behavior in Israel," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 28(17), pages 457-504.
    10. Nicoletta Balbo & Francesco C. Billari & Melinda Mills, 2013. "Fertility in Advanced Societies: A Review of Research," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 1-38, February.
    11. Adsera, Alicia, 2004. "Marital Fertility and Religion: Recent Changes in Spain," IZA Discussion Papers 1399, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Jere R. Behrman & Hans-Peter Kohler & Susan Cotts Watkins, 2001. "How can we measure the causal effects of social networks using observational data? Evidence from the diffusion of family planning and AIDS worries in South Nyanza District, Kenya," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2001-022, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    13. Joshua R. Goldstein & Sebastian Klüsener, 2014. "Spatial Analysis of the Causes of Fertility Decline in Prussia," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 40(3), pages 497-525, September.
    14. Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, 2004. "Uncertainty and the Second Space: Modern Birth Timing and the Dilemma of Education," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 20(4), pages 351-373, December.
    15. Dayuan Xie & Yonghong Zhou, 2022. "Religion effects on fertility preference: evidence from China," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 341-371, September.
    16. Kohler, Hans-Peter, 2000. "Fertility decline as a coordination problem," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 231-263, December.
    17. Thomas Baudin, 2012. "More on Religion and Fertility: The French Connection," Working Papers hal-00993310, HAL.
    18. Victor Agadjanian & Scott Yabiku, 2014. "Religious Affiliation and Fertility in a Sub-Saharan Context: Dynamic and Lifetime Perspectives," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 33(5), pages 673-691, October.
    19. Rozemarijn Dereuddre & Bart Van de Putte & Piet Bracke, 2016. "Ready, Willing, and Able: Contraceptive Use Patterns Across Europe," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 32(4), pages 543-573, October.
    20. Ronen Bar-El & Teresa García-Muñoz & Shoshana Neuman & Yossef Tobol, 2013. "The evolution of secularization: cultural transmission, religion and fertility—theory, simulations and evidence," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(3), pages 1129-1174, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    fertility; family planning; sub-Saharan Africa; social interaction; religion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:19:y:2008:i:55. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.