Family Planning Knowledge (Minnick, 2010)

• Populations: Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults
• Age ranges: 12-19
• Countries: Ghana; Malawi; Uganda

Items

Subscales

• Family Planning, 12 items
• AIDS, 8 Items
• Condom Procedures, 11 Items
• Media on Family Planning and AIDS prevention, 10 Items

Items by Subscale

Family Planning Knowledge

• Which ways or methods have you heard about? [Pill]
• Which ways or methods have you heard about? [Injectables]
• Which ways or methods have you heard about? [Male Condom]
• Which ways or methods have you heard about? [Female Condom]
• Which ways or methods have you heard about? [Foam or Jelly]
• Which ways or methods have you heard about? [Rhythm or Periodic Abstinence]
• Which ways or methods have you heard about? [Withdrawal]
• Which ways or methods have you heard about? [Emergency Contraception]
• Which ways or methods have you heard about? [Female Sterilization]
• Which ways or methods have you heard about? [Male Sterilization]
• Which ways or methods have you heard about? [IUD/Coil]
• Which ways or methods have you heard about? [Implants]

Condom Knowledge and Efficacy

• Have you ever seen a male condom demonstration? 
• A male condom should always be put on before sexual intercourse starts.
• A male condom should be put on the penis only if the penis is fully erect or stiff.
• A male condom can be used more than once?
• Using a male condom reduces sexual pleasure.
• Using a male condom is a sign of not trusting your partner.
• It is embarrassing to buy or ask for male condoms.
• How confident are you that you could get a male partner to wear a condom if you wanted him to use one? [Males: … know how to wear a male condom if you wanted to?] Very Confident, somewhat confident, not confident at all?

AIDS Knowledge

• Can people get the AIDS virus from having sex with persons who are infected with the AIDS virus?
• Can the AIDS virus be transmitted from a mother to child: [During Pregnancy]
• Can the AIDS virus be transmitted from a mother to child: [During Delivery]
• Can the AIDS virus be transmitted from a mother to child: [During Brestfeeding]
• Can people get the AIDS virus from getting infections with a needle that was already used by someone else?
• Can people get the AIDS virus from a blood transfusion?
• Can people reduce their chances of getting AIDS by not having sex at all?
• Can people reduce their chances of getting AIDS by having just one sex partner who is not infected and who has no other partners?
• Can people reduce their chances of getting AIDS by using a condom correctly every time they have sex?
• Can people reduce their chances of getting AIDS by avoiding sharing injections/needles?
• Is it possible for a healthy-looking person to have the AIDS virus?

Family Planning and AIDS Prevention in Media

• In the last few months have you heard or seen messages about family planning?  On the radio?
• In the last few months have you heard or seen messages about family planning? On the television?
• In the last few months have you heard or seen messages about family planning? In a newspaper or magazine?
• In the last few months have you heard or seen messages about family planning? In a poster?
• In the last few months have you heard or seen messages about family planning? In leaflets or brochures?
• In the last few months have you heard or seen messages about HIV/AIDS? On radio?
• In the last few months have you heard or seen messages about HIV/AIDS? On the television?
• In the last few months have you heard or seen messages about HIV/AIDS? In a newspaper or magazine?
• In the last few months have you heard or seen messages about HIV/AIDS? In a poster?
• In the last few months have you heard or seen messages about HIV/AIDS? In a leaflet or brochure?

Scoring

Family planning: 
“Each variable was re-coded 0 = No or Don‟t Know. The presence of correct knowledge was re-coded as 1 = Yes for each of the variables... The range of responses of the family planning scale was 0 to 12.”  (Minnick, 2010)

AIDS knowledge:
“The individual items were operationalized into dichotomous variables in which the original variables were re-coded where 0 = No or Don‟t Know and 1 = Yes. In short, 0 = wrong information and 1 = correct knowledge concerning AIDS. ... items were then summed together to compose the AIDS Knowledge scale (AIDS_KNOW) with a range of 0 to 11 points.” (Minnick, 2010)

Condom Knowledge and Efficacy:
“Questions testing knowledge of correct procedures for condom use were re-coded into dichotomous variables in which 0 = No, Disagree or Don‟t Know and 1 = Yes or Agree. ... Three questions were reverse coded during the recoding process so that the responses aligned themselves in the correct direction...  The reverse recodes for the study were operationalized into 0 = wrong information indicated by responses of Agree or Don’t Know and 1 = correct information indicated by having selected the option Disagree. Finally, there was one question examining efficacy in male condom use which was originally coded as Very, Somewhat and Not at All. The variable was reverse re-coded and then re-coded for a second time into a dichotomous variable in which 0 = Not Confident as indicated by respondents who selected Not at All and 1 = Confident for those selecting Somewhat and Very Confident. Only the second recode was used in analysis.” (Minnick, 2010)

Media:
“For the purposes of this study, the questions were coded 0 = No and 1 = Yes with missing data coded as SYSMIS. Thus, the range of the scale was 0 to 10 points with the greater number of points representing greater exposure to family planning and AIDS knowledge via media.”  (Minnick, 2010)

Citations

Minnick, D. J. (2010). The Factors Influencing the Sexual Practices of Adolescents in Three African Nations [Doctoral Dissertation, The Catholic University of America]. ProQuest Dissertation Publishing

Team comments

Please note that for the Condom Knowledge and Efficacy subscale, and the Aids Knowledge subscale (sexually active adolscent subsample) did not reach our adequacy threshold for internal consistency, however all other subscales were adequate.