No abstract

Research on the determinants of condom use in sub-Saharan Africa has focused on the personal characteristics of individuals and, more recently, on community characteristics such as levels of development and of contraceptive availability. Two additional community characteristics, however--the restraining influence exerted by social networks and traditional community institutions (both theorized to decline with population growth) and the degree of interpersonal communication concerning HIV/AIDS--should also be factored into research. This study uses data from the 2003 Zambia Sexual Behaviour Survey and other surveys to conduct multilevel analyses to assess the influence of each of these various characteristics on condom use in Zambia. The results show that condom use increases with interpersonal communication concerning HIV/ AIDS, community infrastructural development, and access to condoms, and decreases with population growth rate and density. The findings suggest that condom-promotion efforts should be attentive to community-level social norms, population trends, and informal social relationships and interpersonal communication.

This article examines individual, household, and community characteristics that may affect fertility in contemporary Cote d'lvoire and Ghana and the relationship between child mortality and fertility. It was not possible to reject the null hypothesis that child mortality is exogenous. Treating child mortality as exogenous, fertility responds directly to child mortality, but by a smaller proportion than estimated in studies of East Asia and Latin America. Increases in female education and urbanization are likely to contribute to declines in fertility in both countries, but economic growth without these structural changes is not yet strongly related to lower fertility.

Research interest in extra-marital sex has increased as scholars have become aware of its role in sustaining epidemics of STDs in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. While most research has used the socioeconomic and demographic features of individuals as determinants of extra-marital sexual behavior, this study examined the role played by community characteristics. Using data from the 2003 Zambian Sexual Behavior Survey for a sample of 1,118 men aged 15-59 and multilevel logistic regression techniques, the study analyzed the effects of community social and demographic characteristics on involvement in extra-marital sex while controlling for the men's individual-level characteristics. Men's involvement in extra-marital sex was found to vary with the characteristics of communities. The chances of men's involvement in extra-marital sex increased with community-level ethnic heterogeneity and urbanization, decreased in commercial centers, and in communities with a demographic surplus of males, health workers active in AIDS prevention, and access to the mass media. These results show that scholars trying to understand the motivations for extra-marital sex must pay attention to the characteristics of both individuals and communities.