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Fertility limiting intention and contraceptive use among Indian men

Contraceptive use was defined as current use of any method among all sexually active men (20-49 years) who ever
had sex involving not only men’s methods but also other types related to women’s contraception. Female sterilization is a
modern method; however, due to its relatively large proportion, this study classified it as a single category. In other words,
the contraceptive methods were categorized into three categories: Modern methods (condoms, pills, injections, implants,
and IUDs), female sterilization, and traditional methods. The study used responses from men because men influence the
choice of contraceptive methods within their families, which is also consistent with the objectives of this study.
2.3. Factors Associated with Fertility Intention
The study included all major possible demographic and socio-economic variables as independent variables that associated
with fertility intention and the contraceptive use based on the existing literature (Cohen, 2000; Haq, Sakib and Talukder,
2017; Banerjee and Trigun, 2020). The demographic variables included respondent’s age (20-29 years, 30-39 years,
and 40-49 years) and sex composition of living children (all daughters, all sons, equal number of sons and daughters,
more daughters than sons, and more sons than daughters). Socio-economic factors included educational attainment (no
education, primary school, secondary school, and high school or above), wealth quintile (poorest, poor, middle, rich, and
richest), current occupation (not working, professional, clerical/sales/service, agriculture, and manual workers), place of
residence (urban vs. rural), and regions (North, Central, East, Northeast, West, and South). A man’s education, wealth, and
occupation mainly reflect his individual socioeconomic status (SES), whereas current place of residence or region mainly
reflect of macro-level of socioeconomic development for a place/community where he was living at the time of survey.
To account for the possible religious and cultural influence on fertility intention and contraceptive use, we included types
of religions (Hindu, Muslim and others) and Caste (Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Class, and
Others), terms as region, and cultural factors. Finally, we included a variable of social media exposure (no exposure vs.
any exposure) to take into account of the possible influence of governmental intervention programs on family planning
and modern values.

2.4. Statistical Diagnostic of Data
Descriptive statistics were used for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics on contraception use and fertility
intention. In descriptive statistics, the Chi-square test was used to see if there were any differences in family planning
method used by selected covariates. For analyzing factors associated with fertility stopping intention, in addition to
base regression that included only each of all factors as a predictor, four nested binary logistic regression models were
employed among 48,166 married men with at least one child. Model I included demographic variables only. Model
II added socio-economic factors into Model I. Model III further included cultural and religious variables. Model IV
additionally add exposure to social media. For the contraceptive use, two sets of regression models were employed. The
first set examined what factors were associated with use of any contraceptive method among 36,918 men who do not
wish to have additional child using binary logistic regression. The second set used multinomial logit regression models
to examine associates of use of modern contraceptive method or female sterilization relative to tradition method among
10,562 men who wish to stop having any more children. Similar modeling strategy as for fertility stop intention was used
for the contraceptive use. Multicollinearity was not found among independent variables. STATA version 14.1 was used
for analysis of this study.

3. Results

3.1. Results for Analyses of Fertility Stopping Intention

The sample distribution of men with at least one living child and their choices on further children is presented in Table 1.
Overall, about 78.4% of the married men with least one child at the time of survey did not wish to have one more child
regardless of timing. However, the wish for additional child varies by selected covariates among the sample. For example,
more than half (54%) married young men (age 20-29 years) wanted to have at least one more children in comparison with
only 22% and 5% in ages 30-39 and 40-49 years, respectively. In terms of sex composition of children, more than 90% of
married men who had both boys and girls wished to stop to have additional child in comparison with about 68.8% among
men with all sons and 46.5% among men with no sons. From the perspective of socio-economic characteristics, except
small difference found in urban and rural areas, noticeable differences were found for other characteristics. Differences
for cultural and religious characteristics are mild or moderate. The proportion of wishing not to have any more children is
similar between men with any social media exposure and those without.

4 International Journal of Population Studies | 2021, Volume 7, Issue 1