Dissecting the Association between Spousal Communication and Family Planning Use in Nigeria

Hilary Schwandt, Johns Hopkins University
Marc Boulay, Johns Hopkins University
Meghan Corroon, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Akin Akiode, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)

Research on family planning use has consistently reported a strong association between spousal family planning communication and family planning use. In this paper we explore whether woman's self-efficacy to use family planning, measured via the Covert Use Index, moderates the relationship between spousal communication and family planning use. The data come from a 2011 household-based survey among a representative sample of 10,181 women currently in union in six Nigerian cities. Multinomial logistic regression is used to assess the unadjusted and adjusted associations between demographic variables, spousal communication about family planning, and the Covert Use Index. Results show that the Covert Use Index is a partial moderator of the association between spousal communication and current family planning use. Future research agendas should assess the association between other proxy measures of women’s self-efficacy to use family planning as well as measures of relationship equity and individual male attributes.