THE IMPACT OF MASS-MEDIA FAMILY-PLANNING PROMOTION ON CONTRACEPTIVE BEHAVIOR OF WOMEN IN GHANA

This paper examines the influence of media messages about family plann ing, and attitudes toward media promotion of family planning, on contr aceptive behavior of married women in Ghana. It also examines the prob lem of reverse causation that arises in studies of this nature when th e data used provide no information on the temporal order of the actual time that respondents were exposed to family planning information in the mass media and the time of adoption of contraceptive behavior. The results show that exposure to media messages on contraception exerts strong impact on current practice of, and intention to use, contracept ion. Women who had heard or seen advert on contraceptive brands, and w omen who favor broadcast of family planning messages in the media, are significantly more likely to adopt birth control behavior than women who had not heard or seen, and women who do not favor broadcast of suc h media messages, respectively. Regarding the problem of reverse causa tion, the study demonstrates that while being exposed to media message s significantly affects a woman's contraceptive behavior, the reverse does not seem to be the case. The policy implications of these results and how mass media could be used to promote family planning in Ghana are discussed.