Social learning about levels of perinatal and infant mortality in Niakhar, Senegal

How individuals develop perceptions concerning the risk of infant and child mortality has important consequences for fertility and demographic transition theory and for understanding broader processes of social learning. The role of learning through social interaction in shaping demographic phenomena has been the subject of intense research in the last decade. Much previous research however has been hampered by inadequate measures of individuals’ personal networks, the proximal context in which learning takes place. Using pilot data employing an innovative social network design in conjunction with demographic surveillance data from Niakhar, Senegal, this research models perception of change in the level of infant mortality over time as a function of the experience of social network associates with perinatal and infant mortality. Results suggest relatively strong effects of network members’ mortality experience controlling for own experiences of child mortality as well as neighborhood and community levels of infant mortality among other controls.

► We model survey respondents’ perception of change in infant mortality levels in rural Senegal.
► Network perinatal and infant mortality experience is associated with mortality perceptions.
► Heterogeneous network experience explains perception better than community level context.
► Social proximity and recency effects related to network experience are identified.