The attitude of some Nigerians toward involuntary childlessness and its perceived psycho-social effects on the marital quality of the affected couples

Abstract

The psychological, economical and socio-cultural traumas that the married couple with the problems of infertility are passing through worth investigation. These traumas could be linked with the negative attitude that people develop towards the concept. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study using Part 1 of Parental Value for Children Inventory. 272 subjects, randomly drawn from some selected schools in Ogbomoso area of Oyo State were used for the study. Four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level using t-test statistics. The outcome of the study revealed that Nigerians have negative attitude toward involuntary childlessness regardless of age, sex, educational level and religion. While comparing some significant difference of this finding across some demographic variables, it was found that no significant difference existed in the attitude of people towards infertility across age, sex and educational level. However, significant difference existed between Christians and Muslim in their attitude towards the concept. Muslims have a higher negative attitude than their Christians counterparts. The outcome of the results was fully discussed and suggestions were made towards enhancing the psychological well being of the affected couple.

African Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology and Sport Facilitation Vol. 6 2004: 1-7