The impact of media on reproductive behavior in northeastern Brazil.

Abstract

This study examines the impact of media exposure on reproductive behavior among women in northeastern Brazil. Previous research in Brazil and elsewhere has suggested that electronic media, like education and urbanization, can have profound effects on individuals, effects that may lead to the adoption of contraception and to lower overall fertility. To investigate the relationship between media exposure and reproductive behavior, a microdemographic community study was conducted in 1996--97 in two small communities in the northeastern state of Bahia, Brazil. Complete marriage, pregnancy, and contraceptive use histories were obtained from 170 randomly selected resident women aged 15 and above. Current and retrospective data on religion, work experience, urban residence, education, and media consumption (radio, television, and print media) across the life course were also collected from each respondent. The current work focuses on the impact that exposure to electronic media (television and radio) early in the life course has on the timing of marriage, childbirth and contraceptive use. The results of the event history analyses, which model the impact of cohort, education, urban residence, and media exposure on the hazard rates of marriage, low-parity births, and contraceptive use, reveal that media exposure has strong effects on the timing of reproductive events. Among women in the study, exposure to both radio and television prior to age 15 decreases the rate of marriage, lowers the rate of second births, and increases the rate of contraception adoption even after controlling for cohort, educational attainment at age 15, and years of residence in large urban centers prior to age 15. These results suggest that even in the absence of overt fertility-limiting messages, the ideas, information, and values transmitted into households by the electronic media can have far-reaching effects on the reproductive behavior of women in northeastern Brazil.