Bringing in the Family: Kinship Support and Contraceptive Behavior

Though social programs are usually based on a presumption of empirical knowledge, it is no secret that research typically follows, rather than precedes efforts at social intervention. More often than not, social scientists are called in to assess the impact of an existing programmatic initiative, and are asked to render a judgment about the wisdom of a particular course of action after the fact. Only rarely do they take an active part in planning the experiments that they evaluate.