Abstract
Background: Prior research has established that an individual’s social environment may influence his or her reproductive behaviors, yet less is known about peer influence on contraceptive use among young people (ages 15–24). In Kenya, the site of this study, 15% of adolescents ages 15–19 have begun childbearing and 45% of sexually active young women report current use of a modern contraceptive method. This highlights the need to better understand what factors influence young people to use contraception. The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between the perception of peers’ use of contraceptives and contraceptive use and method choice among young men and women in Kenya. Methods: This study utilizes a nationally representative sample of women and men aged 15–24 years from the 2018 and 2019 cross sectional Shujaaz State of the Kenyan Youth annual surveys. Among the sample of sexually experienced young people (59%), multivariable multinomial logistic regression was used to explore the association between the perception of peers’ use of contraceptives and the respondent’s contraceptive method choice: non-user, condom use or use of any other modern method. Results are presented separately for young men and young women. Results: Our results show that sexually experienced young men and women who perceive that their peers are using contraceptives are more likely to report current use of condoms compared to being a nonuser (RRR = 2.12, p < 0.001, RRR = 2.59, p < 0.001, respectively); they are also more likely to use condoms than another modern method of contraception (RRR = 2.13, p = 0.034, RRR = 1.71, p = 0.014, respectively). Young women are more likely to use another modern method (not including condoms) than be a nonuser when they perceive that their peers’ use contraceptives (RRR = 1.51, p = 0.020). Conclusions: The results of this study highlight the important role of peer influence on young people’s contraceptive choices. These findings can be used to develop programs that encourage behavior change communication activities in Kenya that focus on normalizing use of a full range of contraceptive methods among peer groups of sexually experienced young people.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 16 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-12 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Reproductive Health |
Volume | 19 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 21 Jan 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported, in whole or in part, by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [INV-009814]. Under the Grant conditions of the Foundation, a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License has already been assigned to the Author Accepted Manuscript version that might arise from this submission. We also received general support from the Population Research Infrastructure Program through an award to the Carolina Population Center (P2C HD050924) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Carolina Population Center or the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
Funding
This work was supported, in whole or in part, by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [INV-009814]. Under the Grant conditions of the Foundation, a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License has already been assigned to the Author Accepted Manuscript version that might arise from this submission. We also received general support from the Population Research Infrastructure Program through an award to the Carolina Population Center (P2C HD050924) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Carolina Population Center or the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Funders | Funder number |
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Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation | INV-009814 |
University of North Carolina Wilmington | |
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development | P2CHD050924 |
Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | P2C HD050924 |
Keywords
- Condom
- Contraceptives
- Family planning
- Kenya
- Peer
- Social norms
- Youth