Contraceptive Knowledge, Schooling and Fertility: The Roles of Mass Media and Social Network

Kai-Wen Cheng, Cornell University

Taiwan's family planning programs were enacted in 1964. The purpose of the programs was to decrease women's fertility and control population growth through changing fertility demand, introducing modern contraceptive techniques, and encouraging modern contraceptive practice among the married couples. This study uses five repeated cross sectional island-wide interview surveys, Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice of Contraception in Taiwan (KAP) to examine the relationship between contraceptive knowledge and fertility. In order to examine the effect of contraceptive knowledge on fertility, this study uses two-stage least square approach: mass media exposure and social networks are treated as the instruments of obtained contraceptive knowledge. This study finds that the women who regularly watch TV, listen to the radio, read magazines/ newspapers, and participate outside organizations obtain more contraceptive knowledge than others. Contraceptive knowledge significantly reduces the fertility.