The effectiveness of family planning programs evaluated with true experimental designs.

OBJECTIVES: This paper describes the magnitude of effects for family planning programs evaluated with true experimental designs. METHODS: Studies that used true experimental designs to evaluate family planning programs were identified and their results subjected to meta-analysis. RESULTS: For the 14 studies with the information needed to calculate effect size, the Pearson r between program and effect variables ranged from -.08 to .09 and averaged .08. CONCLUSIONS: The programs evaluated in the studies considered have had, on average, smaller effects than many would assume and desire