Some evidence against the assumption that approval of family planning is associated with frequency of spouses' discussion of the subject

Much previous work on the relationship between respondent's reported freque ncy of discussion with spouse about family planning and correctness of repo rting spouse's approval of family planning has led to the conclusion that d iscussion promotes approval. In this paper, data from the 1998 Kenya Demogr aphic and Health Surveys are used to show that a focus on the relationship between frequency of discussion and correctness of reporting partner's disa pproval of family planning leads to sceptical conclusions about the effects of discussion in improving knowledge of partner's attitude or in promoting approval.