Abstract:
This study aims at finding (1) the knowledge, attitudes and practice concerning family planning of the women during child bearing age and living at Soi Senanikom No.2, (2) whether certain sociological, economic and demographic as well as fertility factors affect their knowledge, attitudes and practice concerning family planning. The data used in this study were obtained through interviews with women who were 15 to 44 years old and were still living with their husbands. The sample consisted of 215 families which constituted 34 percent of the total family population at this soi. The families sampled were selected by simple random (with replacement). If a family sampled had no eligible women or the women was not living with her husband, another family was chosen from the population as a substitute by the same method. Eleven hypotheses (5 concerning sociological, 3 concerning economic, and 3 concerning demographic and fertility variables) were formulated. and tested. This study yields some interesting findings as follows:- (1) With regard to the relationships between sociological factors on the one hand and knowledge in, attitudes toward, and practice of family planning on the other education, reading newspapers, receiving public health services at the public health center, and attending movies seem to affect the womens knowledge in, attitudes toward and practice of family planning. In particular, women whose educational levels exceeded Grade 4 had more knowledge, more favorable attitudes toward family planning practiced family planning more often than women with lower levels of education. Among those whose educational levels exceeded Grade 4, the ones who read newspapers had more knowledge, more favorable attitudes and practiced family planning more often than the others who did not read newspapers. Moreover, those who attended the public health center for public health services had more knowledge, more favorable attitudes and practiced family planning more often than those who did not. Further, those who attended movies also had more knowledge and more favorable attitudes toward family planning than those who did not. However, the practice of family planning was found more often among those who did not attend movies than among those who did. Finally, those who had moved to Bangkok for a longer time had more knowledge, more favorable attitudes and practiced family planning more often than those who had moved to Bangkok for a shorter time. But those who moved to Bangkok 5 to 10 years had the most favorable attitudes toward family planning. (2) With regard to the relationships between economic factors and knowledge, attitudes and practice of family planning, women who worked at home seemed to have more knowledge, more favorable attitudes and to practice family planning more often than those who worked outside. Also, the families with higher income had more knowledge and practiced family planning more often than those with lower income, but the ones with medium income had the most favorable attitudes toward family planning. Finally, the women with no personal income practiced family planning most, but the ones with personal income less than 600 baht and the ones with personal income of 600 bath or more had most knowledge and most favorable attitudes toward family planning respectively.(3) With regard to the relationships between demographic and fertility factors on the one hand and knowledge, attitudes and practice of family planning on the other, age and number of off springs seemed to be most significant. The women of medium age (25-34 years) had more knowledge, more favorable attitudes and practiced family planning more often than those who were older or younger. Also, the ones with 1-3 living off springs had more knowledge and more favorable attitudes toward family planning than those who had more or fewer off springs, but the practice of family planning was found most often among these with more than four off springs. Further, the majority of those who had knowledge, favorable attitudes and practiced family planning preferred having 1-3 off springs, while those who did not have favorable attitudes toward family planning prefered having four or more off springs. Therefore, it may be concluded that some sociological, economic, demographic as well as fertility factors seem to significantly affect the womens knowledge, attitude and practice of family planning. But of all these factors the number of living off springs is the most important one that has affected the knowledge, attitudes and practice of family planning positively.