Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Family Planning'

Many family-owned businesses lack strategies regarding succession planning. Succession planning is a company's way of embracing the future. The majority of U.S.-based family-owned businesses do not survive to the second generation, and only 3% of family-owned businesses make it past a third generation. This descriptive case study explored strategies that 4 leaders of a family-owned financial business in the Washington, DC area use to prepare future generations to assume leadership roles in their company. The theory of family systems and the theory of organizational and business development were the conceptual frameworks for this study. In-depth interviews with purposively selected members of the small family-owned business were supplemented with a review of documentation from archival records. Yin's 5-step analysis guided the coding process of participants' response, capturing essential elements using the participants' own language. Member checking was used to validate the transcribed data. The major themes of the study revealed the owners' strategies relating to comprehensive business development, examining the family systems, strengthening retention of all employees, examining organizational theory, planning for the future with contingency strategies, strengthening team building, training and support, and understanding leadership knowledge and leadership competency. This study may benefit small businesses by providing lessons learned on ensuring organizational sustainability. This study's implications for social change include contributing to social stability and continuing economic growth.

Family business literature reveals that the majority of family businesses do not make it to the second generation, and quite a few are fortunate to be passed onto the third generation. Succession planning is the critical issue that enhances continuity of the family business. Relational influences indicate that the balancing of family systems and business systems is more likely to encourage high quality succession. The development of effective practical governance systems can help the family business achieve its strategy. External influences indicate that owner role adjustment, defined as the predecessor’s “letting go” in the firm, as well as the development and mentoring of the successor, shape the effectiveness of succession in the family business.

Based on an analysis of population and education policies from the 1960s and 1996, and on qualitative date collected at the national and local level in Niger, this thesis addresses two strands of inquiry. The first strand is concerned with observing the process of introducing, to the micro-level, education and family planning policies developed at the macro-level. The study highlights the points at which policy and implementation diverge. The often conflicting agendas of population policies and the programmes developed to implement them are explored, focusing in particular on family planning programmes which explicitly set out to reduce fertility rates, as well as on female basic education programmes which may not list fertility reduction as a goal but nevertheless are assumed to have an impact on fertility rates. The second strand of the study is concerned with beginning to illuminate the socio-cultural factors influencing local attitudes towards family planning and towards girls' schooling, and to begin to make links between the two issues. While the complexity of the relationship is such that it would be unreasonable to attempt to disentangle all of the factors involved in the space of this thesis, it is possible to begin to tease out a number of key issues and to investigate to what extent the relationship, which is so evident in policy discourse, is apparent at the local, village level. The purpose of the study is to re-visit the relationship between fertility and education and, having taken the issue of the socio-cultural context of Nigerien Hausa society into consideration, create an opportunity for critical analysis of wider issues affecting education and family planning policy development. The study aims to contribute to the debate regarding policy development and the need to account for the relationship between the macro-level family planning and education initiatives and the micro-level contexts for which they are intended.

The course of endstage renal disease (ESRD) and receiving hemodialysis (HD) treatment is complex and filled with uncertainty. Part of this illness experience includes making end-of-life (EOL) care decisions. Many families are unprepared to make such decisions. Advance care planning (ACP) creates an excellent context for laying the groundwork for these emotionally charged conversations. Hemodialysis patients, their families and healthcare providers (HCPs) are in a unique position to begin the ACP process early in the illness trajectory, revisiting it when the patient’s health status, prognosis and treatment modality changes. To date, little research has focused directly on how families experience ACP conversations in the context of ESRD or HD. The purpose of this study was to explore family members’ experiences of participating in a facilitated ACP conversation with the HD patient. This approach recognizes and privileges the family’s role in the illness trajectory of ESRD and validates that they too are HCPs’ clients. Five families, consisting of the HD patient and one family member, who went through the ACP process were interviewed along with an ACP facilitator from the nephrology program. This focused ethnographic study applied the theoretical perspective of postmodernist critical theory to derive and analyze data from in-depth semi-structured interviews. Findings revealed a detailed description of the ACP process that included timing, readiness to acknowledge the potentiality of death, facing mortality, and finding meaning in the illness experience. As families started to deconstruct their experiences, they shared stories of communication breakdown, highlighting the complexities of their relationships with HCPs. Understanding the factors that potentially contribute to HD patients’, their families’ and the renal staff’s discomfort with death were analyzed. The study findings provide important direction for HCPs about how families make ACP decisions, how they perceive the ACP process, and what they identify as their EOL care needs and wishes. Failure to implement ACP as part of an EOL care program means that death will continue to be denied and clients’ EOL care needs will remain un-addressed. In order for ACP to be effective on HD units, sustainable resources are essential for patients, their families and HCPs.

This dissertation examines the creation and development of the United States government's Title X family planning program from 1965 to 1988. It argues that Title X became controversial when its supporters shifted their focus from promoting family self-sufficiency to celebrating individual reproductive freedom. The new individualist arguments profoundly threatened many Americans who wanted government policy to support the patriarchal nuclear family. Support for federally-subsidized family planning programs in the 1960s rested on an ideology of nuclear family economic independence. Advocates reasoned that birth control services would enable poor Americans, especially African-Americans, to have children only within stable, self-sufficient marriages. Using these arguments, family planning advocates developed nearly-unanimous support for family planning programs among federal policymakers. In the early 1970s, though, family planning supporters embraced feminist and anti-racist critiques of their earlier ideas, leading them to promote subsidized family planning as a route to individual women’s reproductive freedom. In turn, the dissertation examines the growth of the New Right in reaction to the new liberal focus on individual freedom. While some dissenters had opposed family planning programs in the 1960s, this opposition mushroomed in the 1970s as opponents identified Title X as a threat to the family. Family planning opponents focused on two aspects of subsidized birth control programs that endangered the patriarchal nuclear family: abortion and teenagers’ access to contraception. Both of these issues jeopardized the husband’s and father’s authority over his dependents. In addition, opponents claimed that federal government spending on Title X overused their tax dollars, compromising their own ability to be self-sufficient and, thus, the survival of their own independent nuclear families. As a result, they mobilized in opposition to Title X in the 1970s and 1980s. The dissertation uses a wide variety of archival materials, government documents, and published sources to document the trajectory of debates over federally-funded family planning programs
History

Thesis (MPH)--University of Limpopo, 2010.
Background: Sexual health of young people is a matter of public health concern and Reproductive health occupies a central position in health and development. Unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections among young women can be prevented through effective use of contraception. Unmet need for contraception in developing world and rates of unintended pregnancy among young women is high. Aim of the Study: To assess the level of awareness of contraceptives and utilization of family planning services among young women and barriers that hinders effective use of such services Methods: A quantitative descriptive survey was conducted among 360 female undergraduate students of the National University of Lesotho, Roma, Lesotho. A hand delivered self administered questionnaire was used to collect data with the help of four trained research assistants. Epi info version 3.5 was used for data entry and analysis. Results: Awareness of family planning is high among the participant (98.3%); Condom is the most commonly known and used family planning method. Level of sexual experience and Contraceptive prevalence is high. Married status is associated with current use, positive perception on health benefit while Formal teaching on family planning is associated with misconceptions. Conclusion: The level of awareness and Utilization of family planning services is high among female students of university of Lesotho. Access to services is good but there are misconceptions. There is the need to introduce family planning teaching that is based on accurate knowledge to school curriculum

In China, April 13, 1989 was marked as the "1.1 Billion Population Day." Though it has become the first "demographic billionaire" in the world, China has obtained remarkable results in population control. According to the statement issued by China's National Bureau of Statistics in 1987, the natural population growth rate dropped from 25.83 per thousand in 1970 to 11.28 per thousand in 1985. This has been viewed as an achievement not previously seen in any other population. In the past four decades, the Chinese government has adopted a population policy to organize the fertility transition in a planned way through education, motivation and persuasion. Five communication campaigns have been instituted to implement the policy. The successive family planning campaigns have played a vital role in educating and persuading individuals to accept the new fertility norms advocated by the government. In the communication processes of these campaigns, the strategies used have changed from the media-oriented strategy of the first campaign, to the introduction of an interpersonal approach in the second followed by an integration of media, interpersonal and organisational communication in the three latest campaigns. The integration of the media and interpersonal communication approaches was achieved through group discussion sessions and home visits, in which media messages were mediated and interpreted as a reinforcement to media impact. The group dynamics in the interpersonal communication has played an important role in changing individuals' attitudes towards and behaviour of family planning. As a campaign is an organized activity which requires organizational channels to ensure the conduct of the activity and the flow of information, a well-established organization hierarchy for family planning work has facilitated the management of family planning campaigns and also been regarded as a fundemental element to the success of the later campaigns.

In this thesis, the relevance and practical value of discourses about reproductive rights to women living in a rural area of Zimbabwe are examined. Policy documents indicate that the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council's (ZNFPC's) community based distribution service is based on principles of respect for particular definitions of reproductive rights and, concomitantly, a degree of women's reproductive self determination. In contrast, recent analyses of post Independence government action suggest that, as citizens of Zimbabwe, women are generally defined as dependants of men. This raises questions about the impact of the context of women's citizenship on the interpretation and realisation of reproductive rights through the family planning programme. Field work data focuses on the interpretation of policy and the consequent practices of local level health workers as well as women's interactions with health workers and their implications for reproductive self determination within household relations. It is suggested that health workers' actions result in the differential realisation of reproductive rights for particular social groups. Health worker relations with clients, in turn, reinforce differences between women in terms of the extent to which they are able to exercise reproductive self-determination within household relations. State employed health workers, in effect, act as policemen of private reproductive decision making. The use of an analytical framework of rights and citizenship highlights the relatively neglected issue of the political system in which family planning programmes are embedded. It is argued that health worker accountability to village populations is as important as the content of policy in determining the realisation and practical value of discourses about reproductive rights to rural women.

Most family-owned businesses in Nigeria fail to survive to the second generation, and even more fail to survive to the third generation. The problems with sustainability pose issues for individuals and communities but have not been adequately examined by researchers. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that family business owners use to implement succession planning required for business continuity. Succession planning theory was used as the conceptual framework. The participants for the study included leaders of 4 family businesses in Lagos, Nigeria, who have successfully implemented a succession planning strategy required for business continuity. The data were collected through semistructured face-to-face interviews. To enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of the interpretations, methodological triangulation of the data sources and member checking were used. The process of data analysis included word frequency analysis, coding of related phrases, identification of patterns, and generation of themes around the codes. The results of the data analysis revealed five themes: identifying successor leaders, focusing on leadership development, reinforcing knowledge transfer, enhancing longevity of service, and emphasizing mentor and mentee processes. Providing potential successors with valuable skills in the short term becomes valuable for the family business in the long-term, study results show. The findings may raise owners' awareness about how to implement succession planning. The positive social change implications of business longevity include stable employment opportunities and investments in communities.

Family businesses are prevalent in South Africa and throughout the world. Succession is one of the largest challenges facing family businesses. It has been estimated that only one third of family businesses survive to the second generation. This study attempts to determine what the main features are to promote successful family business succession and continuity. The family chosen for this research is the Venter family. The research has scaled the various influencing variables from the literature review into the following focus areas: relationships, conflict, vision, effective succession characteristics and continuity. The findings reflect many instances found in the literature, some are: individuals can manage themselves and have relationships with others; have the ability to resolve conflicts; have mutual support and trust; there is respect between the founder and successor; the business vision is clear; communication is open and clear and decisions are based on expertise and knowledge. Many other aspects are highlighted in the research that follows. In addition, the study attempts to identify the generational effects, the major characteristics of the family owned succession process and the views of the predecessors on the succession process and the post succession period.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2005.
"Submitted to Department of Information Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy" Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-132)

Researchers have called for the studying of strategic planning of family firms, especially in countries such as Saudi Arabia to cater for cultural differences. So far, it is not known how family firms formulate or practice their strategic planning. This research aimed to investigate and evaluate the extent and nature of the strategic planning processes in a sample of family firms in Saudi Arabia. Data from six family firms was collected by semi-structured in-depth interviews using open ended questions. The study employed convenience sampling. A total of 16 interviews were made to collect the data and confirm understanding. Secondary data from company documentation and websites were also utilized. Collected data was analysed (qualitatively) to produce observations on family firms‘ strategic planning process. A pilot study was used to confirm suitability of the methodology and data analysis. The idea for this research came from an actual need of the researcher and many of his friends. The study has many practical implications on family firms both locally and internationally. Therefore, it is hoped that family firms can increase their chances of success and continuation to the following generations. The study found that the businesses tended not to have systematic processes and that analysis was typically unsophisticated and often ignored, while implementation in the sense of resource allocation, setting of sales targets, monitoring of performance, and providing incentives was often approached more systematically. Some interesting strategic patterns across firms were identified such as "Sales is king", "Let‘s do it" and "Just grow". Despite geographical and sample limitations, this study has opened many avenues for further research into the strategy process in family business, both in Saudi Arabia and in other countries and cultures. Therefore, this study contributed by illuminating an under researched part of the world and by addressing a practical problem and knowledge gap.

The goal of this study is to assess the quality of family planning services in rural areas of Virginia. Through interviews with the public and not-for profit clinics, I collected various facts and through client survey, I obtained women's perceptions and feeling about the services provided to them. The goal was to reconcile responses wherever possible, and furthermore, identify differences between facts provided by the clinics and perceptions of clients. From the client surveys, I found that the majority of women are satisfied with the family planning services. Moreover, Appalachian women report higher satisfaction with the family planning services than non-Appalachian women. However, accessibility remains one of the major problems and obstacles to the family planning services. Women that report long waiting time and lack of transportation also have lower satisfaction scores with the services. From qualitative interviews, it is apparent that staff is doing a good job at assisting rural Appalachian women. However, as in client survey, staff reported problems with access to family planning services, such as transportation, unawareness of women of existing services, financial difficulties, and the need of more days and hours of clinic operation.
Master of Science

Thesis (M.S.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2008.
Thesis research directed by: Dept. of Psychology. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

High fertility rates may not pose short-term threats to Pakistan's stability however, Pakistan's long-term survival largely depends on reducing the rate at which the population is expanding because this growth is outstripping economic development. This paper seeks to highlight a viable strategy for Pakistan to improve its population planning approach. The Iranian government's experience with population reduction from 1986-2010 will form the basis of comparison in this paper, helping to identify a way forward for Pakistan. The first section introduces the current population growth in Pakistan and the economic and security risks associated with these high fertility rates. This section also explains the similarities between Pakistan and Iran and why Iran's population programs could be paired with elements of population programs being initiated by the Pakistani government. The second section examines family planning promotion in both Iran and Pakistan. Iran's unique strategy in introducing family planning to a nation of conservative Muslims involved several unique approaches. In Pakistan, these same approaches, if implemented, could bolster Pakistani receptiveness of family planning. The third part reviews ways Pakistan could improve their family planning education model. In Iran, family planning education promoted birth spacing as way to reduce the religious stigma that might forbid contraception. Iran's government also undertook a serious effort to educate men, young adults and couples through family planning education workshops. The final reviews the role that female empowerment, literacy and employment have in reducing nationwide fertility in both Pakistan and Iran. The Iranian government elevated of the status of women by integrating them into civil society. This social change reduced nationwide fertility and overall lifetime fertility. In Pakistan, female education has indirectly reduced fertility rates but has not been promoted by the government to the same degree as in Iran.

A slight majority of American households headed by 55–64-year-olds do not have any savings for retirement, and those who have retirement savings have a median of around $109,000 saved, which is equivalent to an inflation-protected annuity of $405 per month (i.e., well below the official poverty level). Among the main reasons cited for the lack of retirement savings among parents is a desire to provide financial support to their young adult children. Indeed, on the whole, parents spend twice as much on financial support of their adult children as they save for retirement (Merryl Lynch, 2018). Understanding the precursors and predictors of this spending behavior may provide insight into decisions that lead to a lack of self-sufficiency in retirement, and hint at opportunities for prevention and intervention efforts aimed at bolstering retirement savings. To that end, this project was designed to examine the extent to which these financial decisions vary by context and belief systems. Specifically, three studies were developed to investigate motivation for providing support to young adult children in lieu of retirement savings. A sample of 496 respondents who were 40 years of age or older was recruited using the online Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform. Respondents were presented three factorial vignettes in which hypothetical parents were deciding whether to provide support to their adult child with a major expense—a car (Study 1, Chapter 2), college tuition (Study 2, Chapter 3), and a house (Study 3, Chapter 4)—and respondents were asked on a four-point Likert-type response scale whether parents should (definitely yes, probably yes, probably no, definitely no) provide financial support to their adult children in the given context, and to provide a rationale for their response. In each study, key contextual variables were randomly manipulated within the vignette across respondents (e.g., adult child’s gender [female vs. male], parents’ age [early 60s vs. late 40s], source of money [withdrawal from vs. under-contributing to retirement savings], college major [social sciences vs. business degree], and number of siblings [one vs. three]). Ordinal regression models were used to estimate the effects of the randomly manipulated variables on endorsement of parental provision of financial support to adult children, and content analysis was used to identify the most common rationales respondents provided for the beliefs they espoused in the closed-ended items. Endorsement of parental use of retirement saving for financial support varied depending on whether the stated purpose of the money was for purchasing a car (67% endorsed), paying for college tuition (34% endorsed), or paying the down payment on a house (31% endorsed). Across the three studies, only older parents (in their early 60s [Study 1]) and withdrawing money from a retirement account (Studies 2 and 3) had negative effects on endorsement of parental support; responses according to the other randomly manipulated variables did not statistically vary in these data, suggesting norms that supersede the other manipulated variables. Among respondent sociodemographic characteristics—gender, socioeconomic status, clarity of retirement goals, having adult children, and helping them with large purchases similar to situations described in the vignette—only ownership of a retirement savings account or a pension plan had a consistent negative association with endorsement of parental support across all three studies, indicating that people with retirement plans were more conservative in their attitudes about financially supporting young-adult children than were those without retirement plans. Major rationales for the provision of parental financial support included (a) responsibility for the child (i.e., a solidarity belief system), (b) a belief that children pay back their parents (i.e., a reciprocity belief system), and (c) a belief that parents should make sacrifices for their children (i.e., an altruistic belief system). Given that the majority of studies investigate retirement planning from an individual perspective, as if workers were making their decisions rationally in isolation from their family context, future studies may benefit from a more inclusive approach that takes into account the complexity of family relationships and also social perception of parental financial obligations toward their children.

In this dissertation, the strategic planning process in a family owned firm of Saudi Arabia will be discussed. The main aim is to develop a comprehensive model of strategic planning, specific and customized to the family businesses of Saudi Arabia. The model will encompass all the factors that are unique to the Saudi Arabian family businesses, such as the family culture of Saudi business families, the interfamily dynamics that shape the strategic approach of the family and the unique market conditions or the external environment that influences the strategic planning process of family owned firms in Saudi Arabia. The literature review extensively covers the topic of strategic planning, family business dynamics and major salient features of family business described by various authors. The literature review also discusses the models of family business that define the interaction of various elements in family owned firms, their drawbacks and the gaps in applicability of these documented models to family businesses in general and specificallyt o Saudi Arabian family businessesT. he literaturer eview revealst hat there is no comprehensivem odel of strategicp lanning processf or the family owned firms that highlight all the critical factors that shape the strategic planning process and also documents uccessfufli rms that haveb enefitedf rom thesem odels. Based on an extensive survey of the family owned firms of Saudi Arabia and statistical analysis of various unique features of such firms, the most critical factors that play a major role in strategy formulation could be isolated. These critical factors helped in designing the strategic planning model for the family owned firms of Saudi Arabia. The model was practically implemented and validated in 10 family businesses of the kingdom and results confirm the applicability of this model. The model formulation and validation in the family firms of Saudi Arabia, forms the main focus of this dissertation.

Background: In September 2006, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended changing to opt-out screening of HIV for all patients in all health-care settings and for all pregnant women as part of the routine panel of prenatal screening. In opt-out HIV testing, a health care provider verbally informs the patient that the test will be performed and consent is assumed unless they refuse. Earlier opt-in HIV testing guidelines required informed written consent and was targeted at high-risk populations. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of opt-out HIV screening in family planning centres.

Methods: In 2011, data were collected in a pre-post survey design study conducted at 6 Planned Parenthood of Southern New England (PPSNE) clinical centres in Connecticut. The pre-test period used opt-in HIV screening and the post-test period used opt-out HIV screening. Differences in participant characteristics and HIV testing rates, satisfaction, and perceptions of HIV testing were compared between the pre (n=250) and post periods (n=250). Patient characteristics examined were gender, age, race, language, income, family size, insurance status, previous HIV and STD testing at Planned Parenthood.

Results: The mean age of patients offered HIV screening was 26 years old, 58% were white, 26% were black, 12% were Hispanic, and 3.2% were other races. Three-quarters of participants were female. Characteristics of patients receiving opt-in and opt-out screening did not significantly differ for all variables except income (p>0.05 for all except income). HIV testing rates (74% and 75%, respectively) and satisfaction with HIV testing (75% and 77%) were similar between both opt-in and opt-out groups (p>0.05 for both). However, patients receiving opt-in versus opt-out screening differed significantly with respect to their opinions of HIV opt-out screening (93% vs. 98% agreed that HIV screening should be routine for the general population). Patients accepting versus refusing opt-out HIV testing in the post-period differed significantly based on gender, testing centre, and reason for visit (p<0.05 for all). Those accepting opt-out testing were more likely to be male, tested in Hartford North, and seeking care for an asymptomatic STD test. At an alpha level of 0.05, both the full and reduced multivariate logistic regression models revealed that individuals who were tested in Danielson were less likely to accept opt-out HIV testing (as compared to reference categories). Hispanics and individuals seeking care for asymptomatic STD visits were more likely to accept opt-out HIV testing (as compared to reference categories).

Conclusion: In family planning centres, opt-in and opt-out HIV screening have similar outcomes in patients' characteristics, HIV testing rates and satisfaction. Testing rates were high in the pre-test period, which may have resulted in a ceiling effect on the HIV testing rates in the post-test period. Opt-out testing was less effective for some groups and further studies should be conducted to understand this phenomenon.

This cumulative dissertation covers the concepts of scenario-based strategic planning and strategic management in family firms over five articles. The first article gives an overview of the cumulative dissertation explaining the research gap, approach and contribution of the dissertation. The paper highlights the two research areas covered by the dissertation with two articles focusing on scenario-based strategic planning and two on strategic management in family firms. The second article is the first of two focusing on scenario-based strategic planning. It introduces and describes a set of six tools facilitating the implementation of scenario-based strategic planning in corporate practice. The third paper adapts these tools to the financial management and controlling context in private companies highlighting the tools’ flexibility in managing uncertain and volatile environments. The fourth article is the first of two focusing on strategic management in family firms. It analyzes organizational ambidexterity as a factor explaining family firm performance. The article shows that a high level of organizational ambidexterity in family firms leads to a higher family firm performance. The final paper concludes the dissertation examining the tendency of family firms to focus on capability exploration or resource exploitation over different generations managing the family firm.

Rapid population growth is now one of the biggest socio-economic and consequently, health problems in the world. The significance of this dramatic increase in population becomes apparent when the limited possibilities of socio-economic growth are considered among developing countries. The use of modern contraceptives in order to control birth rates, on the other hand, is rather limited in these countries.
The present study investigates the knowledge and attitudes of family planning programs by Iranian males, who play a major role in all familial decision-making, including the practice of family planning. This research examines subjects' reasoning strategies about practicing family planning. A sample of sixty laborers with various levels of formal education were selected and some methods developed within the domain of cognitive psychology were used in analyzing the data.
The results showed that males, as proposed, play a vital role in decision-making regarding the practice of family planning. Formal education appears to have no significant impact on the subjects' knowledge and attitudes toward issues of family planning. Furthermore, early age of marriage, particularly with respect to the girls, appears to be an accepted phenomenon and has strong roots in the belief systems of the population.
This research has implications for developing educational programs in the domain of health. It is proposed that future research should devote considerable effort to better understand the role of the males in the process of decision-making regarding the practice of family planning.

Family planning initiatives have been critical to development strategies since the 1950s. Family planning has been justified on various grounds including its contribution to poverty alleviation, improved maternal and infant health and the advancement of women's rights and choices. More recently, the discourse of 'women's empowerment' has been used in the advocacy of family planning. This discourse integrates a number of earlier justifications for fertility control promoting family planning as a strategy to enhance women's access to higher standards of living and improved health. It associates family planning with advances in women's rights as individual citizens in 'modern' economies and their greater involvement in paid work. This thesis investigates whether this empowerment discourse is evident in family planning programmes in Fiji and its relationship to the socio-economic development of that country. Critical analyses of the operation of power, development strategies and western assumptions about family size, human rights and economic wellbeing inform this research. In particular, Foucault's concept of 'biopower' is used to analyse narratives about family planning articulated by health practitioners, women's rights activists and officials in the Ministry of Health. The analysis of key informants' statements is complemented by consideration of official statistics, and existing empirical data such as documents and pamphlets. The thesis argues that an empowerment discourse is strongly evident in Fiji with respect to the statements made by key informants and available written sources. It looks critically at the narratives that construct family planning as empowering for women, particularly the tropes of choice, health and full citizenship. Close analysis of these narratives demonstrate that the 'stories' uniformly position women as potentially empowered 'modern' subjects. However, critical analysis of these stories about choice, health and citizenship found that family planning strategies were sometimes disempowering. The generic stories embodied by the empowerment discourse did not allow for the diversity of women's needs; this finding supported critiques of one-size-fits-all development strategies. I demonstrate that while the empowerment discourse provided women with the opportunity to control their fertility, engage in paid work and be empowered, it simultaneously created new challenges and different forms of subordination. This thesis found that the empowerment discourse was an unmistakable example of biopower at work

This correlational study investigates traditional gender roles, self-efficacy for career and parenting, and socioeconomic status (SES), as they relate to university undergraduates’ planning for career and family and anticipation of work-family conflict regarding their future families. Unmarried, undergraduate women and men of varying socioeconomic status will complete an online survey consisting of several scales. Proposed results predict that women must often choose between career goals and family care, whereas men usually do not. Expectedly, women will show higher self-efficacy for parenting and increased anticipation of work-family conflict and planning for career and family compared to men. It is proposed that men will exhibit greater self-efficacy for career. Women of lower SES and women who aspire to obtain leadership positions at work will likely report higher anticipated work-family conflict. Those of lower SES will likely hold more traditional gender beliefs than the middle and upper SES groups, and men whose fathers helped in the home will likely have higher self-efficacy for their own parenting. The anticipated results indicate a discrepancy between men’s and women’s and those of differing SES’s planning for work and family. Women will tend to undertake an increased burden; however, a switch to more family-friendly workplace policies for men and women would likely help couples become more egalitarian in their division of family and career labor and planning.

This thesis focuses on integration of family planning into development programmes. It aims to recommend most appropriate ways that non-governmental organizations can adopt in order to introduce family planning as a cross-cutting issue in their development programmes in rural regions of Ethiopia. This is to ensure that women and men have the possibility to make free and informed choices on their childbearing preferences and exercise family planning. In order to identify the most suitable approaches, methods and strategies for family planning mainstreaming, the thesis determines the most significant determinants and factors that affect the childbearing preferences and identify those that can be addressed by family planning mainstreaming. The thesis bases its theoretical framework on the Amartya Sen's Capabilites approach to human development. The second part of the thesis is dedicated to Ethiopia Case Study.

When the owners of family-owned businesses leave the workplace, they can transfer ownership to the next generation; however, their knowledge of the business goes with them. There is a gap in the literature regarding effective ways to transfer family business resources and knowledge to subsequent generations. The problem was some small and family-owned businesses do not have detailed plans in place based on the needs of owners and the successor generation, with cross-project knowledge as part of the succession plan. The purpose of this nonexperimental study was to examine the relationships between the subscales of cross-project tacit knowledge transfer and to examine the generational differences in cross-project tacit knowledge transfer among small and family-owned businesses. The theoretical underpinning of the study was Argyris and Schön's organizational learning theory. Data from family business owners were collected through an online survey administered by SurveyMonkey, using purposeful sampling. Data (n = 233) were analyzed using a Spearman correlation matrix and Kruskal-Wallis tests. The findings indicated there were significant associations for seven of the 10 correlations between the subscales of cross-project knowledge transfer with each relationship being positive. In addition, the findings suggested that there were significant differences in cross-project knowledge transfer by age cohort. These findings may assist informed family-owned business owners with the complexities of succession planning, which may lead to the business being successful over more generations. This may allow the business to sustain its contribution to the local economy and help the community to prosper, leading to positive social change.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1989.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-84).
by Irene D. Jenkins and Mary Helen Schaeffer.
M.S.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-106).
[Background]The IUD is a highly effective, reliable, and safe contraceptive method that is under-utilised in many countries due to persistent fears that it causes pelvic infection. Reliable evidence of the safety of this contraceptive method has not been enough to effect a change in use. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and acceptability of the IUD among clients and providers in the Family Planning services in Cape Town and to attempt to identity obstacles to use. [Methods] A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted at eight Family Planning clinics in Cape Town. Two hundred and sixteen clients aged between 18 and 50 years, and 30 providers from the same clinics, were interviewed using structured questionnaires. [Results] Awareness of the IUD among clients was low - 81 women (41%) had heard of this contraceptive method. Ever and current use were very low. Only 9 women (4%) had ever used an IUD and 3 women were still using this method. Both the women who were interested in using this method in the future (n=77; 36%) and the women who were ambivalent or not interested in future use (n=139; 64%) cited a lack of knowledge as an obstacle to use. Although most providers were aware of the availability of the IUD (n=26; 87%). their factual knowledge was limited. Infection (n=14; 47%) and increased menstrual bleeding (n=12; 40%) were frequently mentioned as disadvantages. Referrals for and insertions of the IUD were low, and this method was often not discussed with women considering tubal ligation. Providers identified lack of client knowledge, myths and rumours among clients, lack of skilled providers to insert the device, and lack of promotion of the IUD, as significant obstacles to greater use of this method. [Conclusion] Although the IUD is available in the public sector services, it is not being utilized. Better education of both clients and providers is essential in order to improve accessibility and acceptability of this highly effective and cost effective contraceptive method.

Spousal communication on issues related to family planning and reproductive health is important in influencing fertility limiting behaviour. In South Africa, studies analyzing the relationship between spousal communication and family planning behaviour are virtually nonexistant. Understanding this relationship is critical for less developed countries where fertility remains at substantially high levels. In most countries, the isolation of men's participation in family planning issues is acknowledged as one of the major causes of poor performance of most family planning programs. In addition, lack of spousal communication about family planning is identified as one of the reasons for low levels of contraceptive use among women. The main objective of this study was to assess spousal communication on contraceptive use and family planning behaviour in three distinct areas in the Richtersveld (Northern Cape) area.

The main objective of the study is to analyze the role of family planning program in reducing maternal mortality in Bangladesh. A conceptual framework has been developed in which family planning is shown to be integrated in reducing maternal mortality. This study found that the risk factors of maternal mortality e.g. unwanted pregnancy, high parity, and early and old age at child birth still prevail in Bangladesh. It is hypothesized that the prevalence of these factors can be substantially reduced by a proper practice of family planning. There is a high level of unmet need for family planning Bangladesh, and its removal will substantially help in reducing maternal mortality in the country. The risk factors of maternal mortality are strongly associated with lack of family planning practice and other socio-economic and demographic background characteristics of women. By using data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) of 2004 and the Bangladesh Maternal Health and Maternal Mortality Survey (BMMS) of 2001 the study has analyzed the relationship of the risk factors of maternal mortality, namely wantedness of pregnancy, age at child birth, parity and birth interval with various socio-demographic factors. The analysis has shown that use status of family planning is influenced by the risk factors of maternal mortality. Wantedness of pregnancy has been found to be significantly related with age at birth, parity and birth interval. It has been also found that the risk factors of maternal mortality also affect on antenatal care. The study has identified some policy implications regarding family planning and maternal mortality, and has made appropriate recommendations. One of the major aspects of the strategies to reduce maternal mortality through family planning is to provide family planning services to all women, regardless of any group affiliation. Fulfilment of unmet for family planning has been recommended as an important strategy to reduce maternal mortality in the country. It addition, it is also recommended to raise the age at marriage and child birth, to space births and to limit family size by empowering women through education.

The present study "Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Family Planning 'Methods in Rural Nepal" was conducted to assess the situation of fertility behavior and use of family planning methods. It attempted to collect reliable data on reproductive behavior; contraceptive knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and family size preferences.The immediate objectives of the study were to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices of family planning methods; to assess the contribution of governmental and non-governmental programs; and recommend appropriate measures and suggestions for the further improvement of the programs.As a representation of rural Nepal, Banganga Village planning office, and the households were randomly selected from the list by the team supervisor. Eligible households selected included all of those in which there was a currently married couple in which either spouse aged between 15 and 45 years of age were present. There were a total of 150 couples identified as eligible for interview and all were successfully interviewed.A structured interview schedule was developed by the researcher, which was sent to Nepal with detailed guidelines for training and management of interviewers. The final editing of all collected survey instruments was carried out by the researcher with the advice of the members of the thesis committee. Later, those instruments were coded and entered in the computer for the purpose of statistical analysis.Based on statistical analysis, it was found that 60.7 percent of the total respondents have heard of at least one of the methods of family planning. However, only 11.3 percent of them have ever used a particular method of family planning. The current use of contraception is also 11.3 percent which is slightly lower than the level found in a 1986 national survey (15.1%). This shows a great disparity between the knowledge and practice of family planning methods.The major reasons given by respondents for not using any family planning method were bad side effects and the desire to have more children. This suggests that program managers and policy makers in Nepal must develop improved information and communication strategies in order to increase the rate of acceptance of family planning.Of the 11.3 percent of the sample who are current users of contraceptive methods, sterilization constitutes as high as 82.4 percent which indicates that family planning is very popular insynonymous with sterilization. This clearly indicates that the concept of birth spacing has not been Nepal.A further finding was that the family planning program is reaching proportionately more literate than illiterate people. This necessitates formation of effective strategies by the concerned agencies which will increase the acceptance rate among illiterate people. This is extremely significant since more than 75 percent of the total population is still illiterate and the majority of them live in rural Nepal.
Department of Sociology

This thesis focuses on the concept of informed choice in family planning and how numerical and systematic targeting aimed at raising the numbers of contraceptive acceptors fundamentally undermines this concept in highland Chiapas. The Government of Mexico’s policy aims within its Reproductive Health Programme (1995-2000) are to reduce the total fertility rate whilst promoting reproductive health services and family planning choices. Though Mexico has seen a decline in its total fertility rate attributed to increased contraceptive use in urban areas, in rural parts the rate remains high. Consequently, the rural poor, and in Chiapas overwhelmingly indigenous populations, have become a major target of the Reproductive Health Programme. Monthly targets are set for clinics and family planning services are offered systematically every time a woman attends a clinic for whatever reason. Amongst the factors which must be accounted for in assessing family planning provision in highland Chiapas are cultural differences between mestizo providers and the indigenous target groups as well as local economic and political conditions. Presently, the state of Chiapas is highly militarised and under the cloud of a low intensity war precipitated by the Zapatista uprising in 1994. The provision of any kind of health services is difficult under these situations, but more so what one considers the distrust sown between some indigenous communities and the government Who provide the health services. This thesis examines the practicalities of implementing a global policy at a local level and the constraints faced by both providers and intended recipients in the social context of Los Altos. Mindful of the care required in identification most people in this thesis (with the exception of a few well-known academics) appear under pseudonyms.

Cette thèse est un recueil de trois essais en économie de la famille, des interactions sociales et la planification de la retraite. Elle utilise plusieurs stratégies cohérentes d’estimation pour comprendre et évaluer l’influence de l’environnement familial et social sur les rendements scolaires des élèves et la poursuite de leurs études. Elle examine aussi les mécanismes économiques qui expliquent la relation non-causale entre la littératie financière et la décision d’épargner pour la retraite chez les personnes âgées de 50 et plus aux États-Unis. Le premier chapitre étudie l’impact des interactions sociales sur les croyances des élèves du secondaire aux États-Unis concernant leur participation au collège. Plus spécifiquement, nous nous sommes demandons si, le fait qu’une élève du secondaire décide par exemple de poursuivre ses études collégiales une fois graduée, est le reflet ou non des croyances ou des motivations de ses ami(e)s. Pour ce faire, nous supposons que les élèves évoluent dans un environnement d’apprentissage social à la DeGroot (1974) dans lequel ils mettent à jour quotidiennement leurs croyances en prenant la moyenne pondérée des croyances de leurs amis et leurs caractéristiques observables. Nos résultats confirment la présence d’effets de pair significatifs dans l’apprentissage social des élèves de l’ordre de 12% en moyenne, mais avec une forte hétérogénéité individuelle non observable allant de 8% à 73%. Nos résultats montrent également qu’il existe une forte hétérogénéité entre les écoles. Étant donné que cette hétérogénéité ne peut être approximée par des caractéristiques observables des élèves, nous suggérons que les politiques éducatives ciblées au niveau de l’école pourraient être plus efficaces. Le deuxième chapitre fait une analyse économétrique de l’importance relative de l’implication des grands-parents dans l’éducation de leurs petits-enfants et de son effet sur le rendement scolaire des élèves. Plusieurs faits stylisés motivent cet essai. (i) Les personnes âgées vivent de nos jours de plus en plus longtemps et en parfaite santé. (ii) Les deux parents sont de plus en plus présents sur le marché du travail ; ce qui peut inciter les grands-parents à les remplacer, en partie ou du moins, à la maison. (iii) Également, l’importance croissante des mères monoparentales présentes sur le marché du travail augmente la nécessité pour les grands-parents de jouer un rôle substantiel dans la vie de leurs petits-enfants. À partir des données américaines de panel de la “National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH)”, ce chapitre présente d’abord la relation non-causale entre le temps d’investissement des parents et l’implication des grands-parents dans l’éducation de leurs petits-enfants. Comme l’augmentation de l’offre de travail des parents durant les années d’étude de leur enfant peut réduire leur temps d’investissement et donc avoir probablement un effet négatif sur le développement de l’enfant, nous avons ensuite examiné si l’implication des grands-parents est susceptible de réduire cet effet négatif. Plus précisément, nous avons estimé la relation non-causale entre l’implication des grands-parents et le rendement scolaire de leurs petits-enfants. Enfin, nous avons présenté un modèle structurel à trois générations (grands-parents ; parents et petits-enfants) afin d’estimer l’impact causal de l’implication des grands-parents sur les performances académiques des enfants. Nos résultats montrent, entre autres, que l’implication des grands-parents (du côté de la mère) expliquent 15% du rendement scolaire des enfants. Toutefois, une bonne implication des grands-parents dans la vie de leurs petits-enfants rime avec une bonne planification de la retraite et une bonne sécurité financière. Ceci nous amène donc à analyser dans le troisième chapitre de cette thèse, la relation non-causale entre la littératie financière et la planification de la retraite aux États-Unis. En effet, afin de pouvoir faire face au phénomène du vieillissement de la population et à cause des conséquences de la crise économique et financière que le monde a connus ces dernières années, plusieurs pays ont entamé la réforme de leurs systèmes de pension. Dans la plupart de ces nouveaux systèmes de pension, une bonne partie du risque et des responsabilités a été transférée du gouvernement, des employeurs et des fonds de pension vers les particuliers et les ménages (Prast and van Soest, 2016). Aux États-Unis par exemple, les régimes de pension à “prestation définie” qui garantissait un revenu donné après la retraite ont été largement remplacés par des régimes à “cotisation définie” où les primes sont fixes mais les revenus de pension dépendent des rendements des investissements et les particuliers doivent faire leurs propres choix d’investissement devant la multitude d’actifs financiers qui s’offrent à eux. Pour cette raison, plusieurs décideurs s’investissent à identifier les instruments de politique qui vont permettre à la population de prendre de bonnes décisions liées à leur pension et ainsi maximiser leur utilité espérée tout le long de leur cycle de vie. Du côté de la recherche, plusieurs études montrent dans plusieurs pays que le premier aspect le plus important est l’éducation financière chez les plus jeunes et la littératie financière chez les adultes (e.g., Lusardi and Mitchell, 2011 ; Bucher-Koenen and Lusardi, 2011). Ce chapitre analyse donc la corrélation non-causale entre la littératie financière et la décision d’épargner pour la retraite chez les personnes âgées de 50 ans et plus aux États-Unis. Nos résultats montrent que chez les femmes, le manque de connaissance sur les questions relatives à l’inflation, au taux d’intérêt et à la diversification du risque est une cause de non-planification pour la retraite. Par contre chez les hommes, seulement le manque de connaissance sur la diversification du risque semble influencer leur décision d’épargner pour la retraite. Trois mécanismes permettent d’expliquer cette différence entre les hommes et les femmes : les besoins d’épargne différents, l’excès de confiance chez les hommes et l’utilisation beaucoup plus importante des services d’un conseiller financier chez les femmes.
This thesis is a collection of three essays in economics of the family, social interactions and retirement planning. It uses coherent estimation strategies to ascertain the influence of friendship and family background on children educational attainment and their academic achievement. It also investigates the mechanisms underlying the interplay between financial literacy and retirement planning. The first chapter studies the role of friendship in explaining teenagers’ subjective beliefs regarding their college participation. More specifically, we wonder whether the fact that a high school student decides, for example, to continue her college studies after graduation, is due to her friends’ beliefs or motivations. For that purpose, we assume that students embedded in a social network à la DeGroot (1974) in which they update their beliefs by repeatedly taking the weighted average of their neighbor’s beliefs and their observable characteristics. Our results confirm the presence of significant peer effects in students’ social learning of 12% an average, but with a strong unobservable individual heterogeneity ranging from 8% to 73%. Our results also show that there is a strong heterogeneity between schools. Since this heterogeneity cannot be approximated by observable characteristics, we suggest that targeted at school level could be more effective. The second chapter investigates grandparents’ involvement in grandchildren education. Three stylized facts motivates this chapter. (i) Seniors are living now progressively longer and healthier lives. (ii) Both parents are increasingly present on the labor market; which may encourage grandparents to replace them, in part or at least, at home. (iii) The rise of working single mothers increases the potential for grandparents to play an important role in the life of their grandchildren. Using panel data from the US National Survey of Families and Households, we first present in this chapter, the non-causal correlation between parental time investment and grandparents’ involvement. Second, since increasing parents’ labour supply in a child school years can reduce their time investments and therefore cause a negative direct effect on child’s outcomes, we investigate whether grandparents’ involvement could reduce this negative effect. More precisely, we analyze the non-causal correlation between grandparents’ involvement and grandchildren academic achievement. Finally, we present a three-generational (grandparentsparents-grandchildren) model in order to estimate the causal effect between grandparents’ involvement and grandchildren academic achievement. Our results show that grandparents (from the mother-side) explains 15% of grandchildren academic achievement. However, good grandparents’ involvement goes hand-in-hand with good retirement planning and financial safety. This leads us to analyze in the third chapter of this thesis the non-causal correlation between financial literacy and retirement planning in the US. Indeed, to meet the challenges of an ageing population, and due to the economic and financial crisis that countries have experienced during the past decades, many countries have started reforming their pension systems. In most of these new pension systems, a substantial part of the risk and responsibility has been shifted from governments, employers and pension funds to individuals and private households (Prast and van Soest, 2016). In the US for instance, employer-provided “defined benefit” plans guaranteeing a given income after retirement have largely been replaced by “defined contribution”, where premiums are fixed but pension income depends on investment returns and individuals have to make their own investment choices. For this purpose, several decision-makers try to find policy instruments that could help people to take good decisions concerning their pension and then maximize their expected utility over their life cycle. On the research side, several papers show in many countries that the first important aspect is financial education among young people and financial literacy among adults (e.g., Lusardi and Mitchell, 2011; Bucher-Koenen and Lusardi, 2011). This chapter therefore analyzes the non-causal correlation between financial literacy and the decision to save for retirement among people aged 50 and over in the US. Our results show that among women, lack of knowledge on inflation, interest rate and risk diversification is a cause of non-retirement planning. However, among men, only lack of knowledge in risk diversification seems to influence their decision to save for retirement. Three mechanisms explain this gender difference: different saving needs, overconfidence among men and an increasing use of services from financial advisors by women.

Nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended. In 2002, the direct medical costs of unintended pregnancies were estimated to be almost five billion dollars. Moreover, women with unintended pregnancies tend to delay seeking prenatal care and making the necessary life style changes for the fetus. Subsequently, unintended pregnancies have the potential to lead to low birth weight infants and potentially poorer long-term child development. Although there are negative consequences with unintended pregnancies, repeat unintended pregnancies impose even greater health risks for both mothers and infants. To prevent unintended and repeat unintended pregnancies, family planning methods must be utilized effectively. Despite the potential risk associated with negative health outcomes of mothers and infants, repeated unintended pregnancies have not been studied extensively. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the number of unintended pregnancies and effective use of family planning methods. A secondary analysis of The National Statistics of Family Growth, cycle 6 (2002) was done. The study showed a statistically significant relationship association between the number of unintended pregnancies and effective contraceptive use after adjusting for confounders which include age, race, annual household income, marital status and types of insurance. The recommendation of this study include creating better strategies for family planning practices and the need to improving contraceptive education and service delivery for those with higher risk.

Young women today are anticipating involvement in both career and family. The competing demands of family and work often result in work-family conflict. A survey was administered to 124 female college students exploring the importance they place on work and family roles, the expectations they have for combining these roles, and their attitudes toward planning for multiple roles. Identity theory provides a foundation for understanding the choices women make regarding their anticipated participation in work and family roles. The results suggest that although college women are expecting to have demanding careers and involved family lives, they are not planning realistically in order to facilitate the combining of career and family roles with a minimum of conflict.

This dissertation examines the effectiveness of interventions related to family planning and the uptake of HIV-related preventive services among women in low-income settings. Women in low-income settings and living with HIV face many barriers to care, including limited access to services for family planning and HIV-related preventive care. At the same time, national, regional, and global efforts are looking for interventions to help control rapid population growth, create an HIV-free generation, and provide adequate preventive care for those living with HIV. This dissertation cuts across these issues and can help to inform debate and policies to address these issues. This dissertation comprises three discrete papers. Paper 1 (chapter 1) examines the effectiveness of a national scale-up of community-based distribution of family planning services on contraceptive use in Malawi’s rural areas during the period 2005-2016. The national-scale up of the intervention followed the success of a pilot of a similar intervention implemented in the period 1999-2004. As in the pilot, the scaled-up program distributed condoms and oral contraceptives and provided family planning education. Further, because education and income are important determinants of individual contraceptive use, the paper also examines whether the effectiveness of the national scale CBDs varies over these dimensions. The paper uses the Malawi Demographic and Health Surveys. The study finds that the intervention increased contraceptive use by 6.8 percentage points and the effects were greater among uneducated and low-income women. Paper 2 (chapter 2) conducts a cost-effectiveness analysis of a trial of cash incentives aimed at increasing the uptake of services for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. The trial was conducted in the Democratic of the Congo (DRC) as part of an effort to find ways of increasing uptake of PMTCT services in sub-Saharan Africa where uptake of these services remains low. The study is conducted from the societal perspective, relies on multiple sources within and outside of the DRC for cost data, and reports economic costs in 2016 International Dollars (I$). At a threshold of 3*GDP per capita for the DRC (I$2409), the study finds that the intervention is cost-effective. Paper 3 (chapter 3) examines the guideline concordance of the time to follow-up anal cancer screening in women living with HIV at high risk for anal cancer. In the US, the incidence of anal cancer in women living with HIV has increased significantly in the past 2-3 decades. However, early detection of anal cancer, through regular screening, can lead to effective secondary prevention of the disease. While guidelines for anal cancer screening exist, very little is known about the guideline concordance of the time to follow-up anal cancer screening in women at high risk of acquiring anal cancer. Hence this study. The study uses Medicaid Analytic eXtract files which compile claims of individuals enrolled in Medicaid—a public health insurance program largely for eligible low-income adults and the largest single payer for HIV/AIDS in the US. The study finds that time to follow-up screening is not guideline-concordant for most women living with HIV, particularly those with one of the two risk factors for anal cancer: a history of abnormal cervical test results or a history of genital warts.