Agency in Family Planning
A Scoping Review of the Measurement of Agency in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14524152 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Francine Wood (0000-0002-9501-0601), Courtney McLarnon, Sarah Smith (0000-0003-0857-5039), Sarah Francis Smith (0000-0001-8954-8854), Nitya Yerabandi, Lotus Mcdougal (0000-0002-3002-0489) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 621-641 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in Family Planning (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0039-3665 • E-ISSN: 1728-4465 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/sifp.70025 |
| PMID | 40631465 |
| OpenAlex | W4412118524 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 53 |
Improving women's agency in family planning is an integral component of empowerment, requiring culturally relevant, reliable, and valid measures. Measuring agency—action towards the achievement of self‐determined goals—is key to tracking progress as highlighted by its inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet, agency measurement within low‐ and middle‐income contexts has all too often involved applying measures developed and tested in high‐income contexts, and conceptual confusion has also led to both overlapping measures and those that omit key facets of agency. To examine the construction and application of agency measures in family planning research and programs, we conducted a scoping review of studies in low‐and middle‐income countries. Of 9,289 articles and abstracts screened, 72 met our inclusion criteria and included family planning outcomes. We identified 58 unique measures. Most measures were summative and described psychometric testing. Measures often included family planning‐specific items, generally focused on contraceptive use with less attention to areas such as communication, access to services, or fertility timing. While increased interest in measuring family planning agency is evident, inconsistencies in measurement hinder cross‐contextual comparisons. As family planning research and programs adopt empowerment‐focused benchmarks, validated measures of agency are needed to accurately assess impact
Agency (philosophy) · Business · Economic growth · Economics · Empowerment · Environmental health · Family planning · Population · Social science · Sociology · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Global Maternal and Child Health · Medicine · Psychology
Disrupting gender norms in health systems
Gender equality and gender norms
Global perspectives on the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents
Reconceptualizing Women's and Girls' Empowerment
Reproductive Autonomy and Modern Contraceptive Use at Last Sex Among Young Women in Ghana
Self‐Regulation and the Problem of Human Autonomy
Developing and testing measures of reproductive decision-making agency in Nepal
Motivators and Influencers of Adolescent Girls’ Decision Making Regarding Contraceptive Use in Four Districts of Zambia
Non-adherence to Covid-19 containment behaviours
Community influences on modern contraceptive use among young women in low and middle-income countries
Understanding how social norms affect modern contraceptive use
Measuring Women’s Agency
Does addressing gender inequalities and empowering women and girls improve health and development programme outcomes
Adapting and Validating the G‐Norm (Gender Norms Scale) in Nepal
Statistical methods in psychology journals
Developing Scales for Measuring Gender Behaviors in Reproductive Health in Rural China
The Emerge framework to measure empowerment for health and development
Revisiting Women's Empowerment and Contraception
Resources, Agency, Achievements
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |