Milken Institute School of Public Health Poster Presentations (Marvin Center & Video)
Contraception Use and Tolerant Attitudes toward Violence against Women: How Media Use and Collective Norms are Jointly Associated with Attitudes and Behaviors among Ethiopian and Tanzanian Women
Document Type
Poster
Keywords
Media Effects; Collective Norms; Contraception; Violence; Ethiopia; Tanzania
Publication Date
4-2017
Abstract
Background: 68% of Ethiopian and 58% of Tanzanian women believe a husband is justified in beating his wife in at least one of five specified circumstances (e.g., overcooking the food). 29% of currently married women in Ethiopia and 38% in Tanzania are using contraception. Use of any method of contraception decreases with the increase in the number of reasons that a woman thinks wife beating is justified.
Objective: Our objective is to test the following hypotheses. Hypothesis1: Collective norms are associated with individual attitudes about violence against women and use of contraception. Hypothesis 2: Media use will attenuate the relationship between collective norms and individual attitudes and behaviors.
Methods: Data come from the 2011 Ethiopian DHS (N=15, 913) and from the 2016 Tanzanian DHS (N= 13,208), nationally representative surveys of women. Each enumeration area (similar to a zip code) was taken as a separate community (total Ethiopian communities=650 & total Tanzanian communities = 608). Collective norms were classified as low, medium, or high on contraception use and tolerance for violence (CU-TFV) measures based on values at the community level. Regressions were run to predict individual level CU-TFV from collective norms for CU-TFV, media use, and their interaction, controlling for age, wealth, education and urban versus rural.
Findings: Collective CU-TFV norms were significant predictors of individual-level CU-TFV, respectively (all Ps<.001). Media use was significant for CU (all Ps <.05) but only significant for TFV among Ethiopian women (P= <0.01). Significant interactions between collective CU-TFV norms and media (all Ps<.05 except TFV in Tanzania) showed that when collective norms were high, media use did not differentially predict CU-TFV. But when CU-TFV was low, media use was positively associated with higher individual CU-TFV in all regressions except TFV in Tanzanian women.
Conclusion: Media’s influences appear to be a function of community characteristics. Findings suggest that collective norms are powerful and impact individual CU-TFV but that media can attenuate this relationship in most cases. External media are more consequential among communities with low CU-TFV. For communities that are already engaged in higher contraception use and low tolerance for violence, media use is not as consequential.
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Open Access
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Contraception Use and Tolerant Attitudes toward Violence against Women: How Media Use and Collective Norms are Jointly Associated with Attitudes and Behaviors among Ethiopian and Tanzanian Women
Background: 68% of Ethiopian and 58% of Tanzanian women believe a husband is justified in beating his wife in at least one of five specified circumstances (e.g., overcooking the food). 29% of currently married women in Ethiopia and 38% in Tanzania are using contraception. Use of any method of contraception decreases with the increase in the number of reasons that a woman thinks wife beating is justified.
Objective: Our objective is to test the following hypotheses. Hypothesis1: Collective norms are associated with individual attitudes about violence against women and use of contraception. Hypothesis 2: Media use will attenuate the relationship between collective norms and individual attitudes and behaviors.
Methods: Data come from the 2011 Ethiopian DHS (N=15, 913) and from the 2016 Tanzanian DHS (N= 13,208), nationally representative surveys of women. Each enumeration area (similar to a zip code) was taken as a separate community (total Ethiopian communities=650 & total Tanzanian communities = 608). Collective norms were classified as low, medium, or high on contraception use and tolerance for violence (CU-TFV) measures based on values at the community level. Regressions were run to predict individual level CU-TFV from collective norms for CU-TFV, media use, and their interaction, controlling for age, wealth, education and urban versus rural.
Findings: Collective CU-TFV norms were significant predictors of individual-level CU-TFV, respectively (all Ps<.001). Media use was significant for CU (all Ps <.05) but only significant for TFV among Ethiopian women (P= <0.01). Significant interactions between collective CU-TFV norms and media (all Ps<.05 except TFV in Tanzania) showed that when collective norms were high, media use did not differentially predict CU-TFV. But when CU-TFV was low, media use was positively associated with higher individual CU-TFV in all regressions except TFV in Tanzanian women.
Conclusion: Media’s influences appear to be a function of community characteristics. Findings suggest that collective norms are powerful and impact individual CU-TFV but that media can attenuate this relationship in most cases. External media are more consequential among communities with low CU-TFV. For communities that are already engaged in higher contraception use and low tolerance for violence, media use is not as consequential.
Comments
Poster to be presented at GW Annual Research Days 2017.