Reproductive Health and Social Development in Developing Countries: Changes and Interrelationships

The purpose of this study is to identify interrelationships between social development and reproductive health in developing countries. Growth in social development is expected to improve reproductive health over time. In addition, improvements in social development are anticipated from increases in reproductive health. Economic development is seen as a prime force influencing growth processes in both social development and reproductive health. While confirmatory factor analysis methods are used to develop a measure of reproductive health, latent growth curve and latent score difference modelling methods are used to estimate the reciprocal nature of the relationship between social development and reproductive health. It is found that social development has a positive effect on reproductive health. Reproductive health gains over time were accompanied by strong and significant advances in social development levels. At high levels of social development, the rate of reproductive health changes declined. Social workers have for long depended on social development strategies to improve reproductive health in developing countries. The role of reproductive health in improving social development was either neglected or perceived as unimportant. The empirical evidence from this study suggests that strategies for programmes and policies for improving social development and reproductive health may be undertaken simultaneously.