Female Genital Cutting (FGC) is practiced all over the world and impacts millions of women and girls every year. The negative health and social consequences of FGC have been well documented and many interventions to end the practice have been attempted. Policy makers and development planners continue the struggle yet still the practice remains. More recently, those who are involved in FGC eradication attempts have called for a better understanding of behavior change models and for interventions that are based in theory. This dissertation utilizes several analytic techniques including bivariate correlation and logistic regression to analyze data from the Burkina Faso Demographic and Health Survey of 2003 to assess the validity of one such theory of behavior change, the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), to determine if it is an appropriate theory in the particular behavioral domain of FGC. The TRA suggests that attitudes and subjective norms predict intention and that intention in turn predicts behavior. This dissertation tests the first portion of this theory to determine if attitude and subjective norm do indeed predict intention in women in Burkina Faso. The results suggest that the TRA is indeed a valid theory for predicting women's intention to circumcise their daughters in Burkina Faso as both attitude and subjective norm are robust predictors of intention. Furthermore it was found that research based solely on identifying demographic variables should be discontinued as demographic variables for the most part did not predict intention. The one exception was religion with Muslim women being much more likely to circumcise than women who were not Muslim. The recommendations call for an expansion of the Demographic and Health Surveys to collect more information related to FGC, additional research on FGC utilizing the TRA, the discontinuance of FGC research based solely on demographic variables, and changes to current interventions so that both attitude and subjective norm are addressed and so that Muslim populations are specifically targeted. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2008. / June 4, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. / Petra Doan, Professor Directing Dissertation; Charles Connerly, Committee Member; Christopher Coutts, Committee Member; Doug Schrock, Outside Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_253294 |
| Contributors | Pierce, Brenda K. (authoraut), Doan, Petra (professor directing dissertation), Connerly, Charles (committee member), Coutts, Christopher (committee member), Schrock, Doug (outside committee member), Department of Urban and Regional Planning (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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