Infant and Child Mortality within Social Networks and Perceptions of Mortality Change in Niakhar, Senegal

John Sandberg, McGill University
Steven Rytina, McGill University

Using an innovative social network design, this research models the association between individuals’ network members’ experiences of child mortality, their own, and their perceptions of change in the rate of such mortality in Niakhar, Senegal. The impact of social interaction on demographic phenomena has been the subject of intense research in the last decade. Previous research however has been hampered by inadequate measures of individuals’ personal networks. We employ survey data that remedies theses issues, capturing more extensive personal networks and higher quality data on network members than has been possible before. We examine the association between beliefs concerning levels of child mortality and the mortality experience of network members across 4 commonly identified domains of association defined by affective, exchange and role-relational ties as well as frequency of interaction.