Television and International Family Change: A Randomized Experiment

描述（由申请人提供）：电视被认为是当代世界最强大的思想传播者和社交媒介之一，它改变态度和行为的力量早已被认为是存在的。全世界在电视宣传活动上花费了数十亿美元，以促进人口健康，尽管我们缺乏电视与家庭形成和生殖健康之间存在因果关系的明确证据。虽然大量的研究文献记录了电视的影响，但现有的研究主要是关联的；使得不可能建立因果方向或消除第三个变量对观察到的关联负责的可能性。在为这些现有的研究问题辩护时，许多人指出，由于电视是如此广泛地可用，“随机分配目标观众的成员到比较组和干预组是极其困难的，如果不是不可能的话”（Gurman & Underwood, 2008, p. 56）。然而，我们确实有难得的机会对电视的影响进行随机实验。我们与越南政府合作，在越南一个偏远山区选择了14个村庄，这些村庄目前缺乏电力。在使用相互加强的定性（家庭和社区民族志）和定量（调查访谈）数据收集策略收集了所有14个村庄的基线信息后，我们将随机将一半村庄分配到治疗组，另一半村庄分配到对照组。治疗村将获得电视机和装有汽油的发电机来驱动电视机。控制村将不会得到发电机或电视机。所有14个村庄将在引进电视后的3年内每年进行一次跟踪。这将是第一个使用大型随机设计来检验电视对家庭形成和生殖健康的因果影响的研究。本研究的具体目的是：(1)研究电视对家庭形成态度和行为的因果影响，包括结婚年龄、父母在择偶过程中的角色、期望的家庭规模、第一胎年龄和避孕措施的使用；(2)审查电视对生殖健康知识（性传播感染及其预防知识、现代避孕药具知识）、婚前性行为、使用生殖健康服务和使用避孕套的因果影响；(3)研究电视效应运作的具体机制。这项研究的创新之处在于它对实验设计的依赖，它将定量和定性方法相结合，以及它的国际和跨学科的研究团队。这项具有足够统计能力的大型实验（14个村庄，约4,200名受访者）可以显著推进我们关于人口变化和媒体效应的理论模型，并对人口健康干预措施的设计和实施具有重要意义。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Television has been described as one of the most powerful idea disseminators and socializing agents in the contemporary world and its power to change attitudes and behavior has long been assumed. Billions of dollars are spent worldwide on television campaigns to promote population health even though we lack clear evidence of a causal link between television and family formation and reproductive health. Although a substantial research literature documents television's effects, existing research is primarily associational; making it impossible to establish a causal direction or to eliminate the possibility that a third variable is responsible for the observed associations. In defending these existing research problems, many note that because television is so widely available, "it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to randomly assign members of a target audience to comparison and intervention groups" (Gurman & Underwood, 2008, p. 56). However, we do have the rare opportunity to conduct a randomized experiment on television's effects. In cooperation with the Vietnam government, we have selected 14 villages in a remote, mountainous area of Vietnam that currently lacks electricity. After collecting baseline information on all 14 villages using mutually reinforcing qualitative (family and community ethnographies) and quantitative (survey interviews) data collection strategies, we will randomly assign half the villages to the treatment group and the other half to the control group. Treatment villages will receive televisions and generators with gasoline to operate the televisions. Control villages will not receive generators or televisions. All 14 villages will be followed annually for 3 years after television's introduction. This will be the first study to examine the causal impacts of television on family formation and reproductive health using a large, randomized design. The specific aims of this research are: (1) Examine the causal impacts of television on family formation attitudes and behaviors, including age at marriage, parent's role in the mate selection process, desired family size, age at first birth, and contraceptive use; (2) Examine the causal impacts of television on reproductive health knowledge (knowledge of STI's and their prevention, knowledge of modern contraceptives), premarital sexual activity, use of reproductive health services, and condom use; and (3) Examine the specific mechanisms through which television effects operate. This study is innovative in its reliance on an experimental design, its integration of quantitative and qualitative approaches, and its international and interdisciplinary research team. This large experiment with sufficient statistical power (14 villages with approximately 4,200 respondents) can significantly advance our theoretical models of both population change and media effects and has important implications for the design and delivery of population health interventions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Public and private agencies worldwide are increasingly using television as a deliberate tool for changing reproductive and health behaviors (i.e., contraception and HIV risk behaviors). However, the causal impacts of television on attitudes and behaviors remain unclear. This design will provide one of the most rigorous assessments to date of the causal impacts of television, and has important implications for theoretical development on media effects, the mechanisms leading to international family change, and for the design and delivery of public health interventions.