Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Family planning is the practice of controlling the number of children and the spacing between children with this study there would be an increase to use of contraceptives which in turn reduces Total Fertility Rate (TFR), reducing unmet need for family planning and reducing maternal and child deaths. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors influencing adoption of modern family planning methods by women in Nanyuki town, Laikipia County, Kenya. The dependent variable for the study was adoption of modern family planning by women. Independent variables were couples desire for large families, women economic status, community attitude and women’s close social networks. The study adopted a descriptive study design. The theoretical framework that guided the study was the Social Networks Theory. The sample size for the study was 40. The sampling procedure used was simple random sampling procedure. A questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics of frequencies, percentages and correlation analysis from Excel and SPSS. The findings of the study are expected to be beneficial to the community in the local and national level and other stakeholders who benefit either directly or indirectly with the data collected and analyzed. The findings on the study show that by taking the coefficient of determination, couples desire for a large family as an objective contribute 36 percent variability in adoption of modern family planning methods also a statistical significant relationship between community attitude and adoption of modern family planning methods by women was observed. The study recommends that National and county governments should encourage improvement on the transition from primary, to secondary, to tertiary school to increase the education levels among women which would help them have a clear and better understanding on the benefits of modern family planning methods.
