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Community and contraceptive choice in rural Thailand: A case study of Nang Rong

  • Contraception
  • Published:
Demography

Abstract

This paper blends quantitative with qualitative data in an investigation of community and contraceptive choice in Nang Rong, Thailand. Specifically, it develops an explanation of 1) method dominance within villages, coupled with 2) marked differences between villages in the popularity of particular methods. The quantitative analysis demonstrates the importance of village location and placement of family planning services for patterns of contraceptive choice. The qualitative data provide a complementary perspective, emphasizing the importance of social as well as physical space and giving particular attention to the structure of conversational networks.

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Correspondence to Barbara Entwisle.

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This research was partially supported by Grant R01 HD25482 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. It also benefited from centers grants to the Carolina Population Center from the Mellon Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and from support provided by the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. We would like to thank Peter Bearman, Karin Brewster, Philip Guest, Philip Morgan, Joseph Potter, Susan Watkins, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and Erika Stone, Phil Bardsley, and Alan Snavely for expert programming assistance.

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Entwisle, B., Rindfuss, R.R., Guilkey, D.K. et al. Community and contraceptive choice in rural Thailand: A case study of Nang Rong. Demography 33, 1–11 (1996). https://doi.org/10.2307/2061709

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