Composition and Structure of Women's Family and Personal Networks in Ouagadougou: What Effects on Current Fertility?

Théodore Kabore, Institut Supérieur des Sciences de la Population (ISSP)
Moussa Bougma, Institut Supérieur des Sciences de la Population (ISSP)

The objective of this study is to assess the effects of the composition and structure of family and personal networks on women's current fertility in Ouagadougou. To do this, she uses data on social networks and women's reproductive histories with Poisson regression models. The results show that the composition of the network, measured by the type of family configuration, has a significant effect on current fertility. "Kinship" and "sibling" configurations are associated with higher moment fertility, while the "Restricted" configuration is associated with lower fertility. As for the structure of the network, the results indicate that the size of the network is negatively associated with the fertility of the moment, while the density of the network has a significant effect only in "Restricted" configurations. These results call into question the need to take social networks into account in strategies aimed at controlling fertility in the city of Ouagadougou.

Keywords: Fertility, Social network methods

See extended abstract.