Childlessness and Its Socio-Cultural Implication on Married Couples within Some Selected Yoruba Communities in South-West Nigeria

ABSTRACT Childlessness has major psychological and social implications for affected persons, especially in settings where fertility is highly valued. While a number of studies have documented how childlessness is perceived in these societies and the multitude of adverse consequences suffered by affected individuals, studies have not made a clear distinction between voluntary and involuntary childlessness in these settings. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit information on socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, socio-cultural implication of childlessness on married couples, causes of childlessness on married couples, perception of married couples towards childlessness, and effects of childlessness on married couples and what are the copying strategies adopted by these childless couples from the selected Yoruba communities, the study explores both voluntary and involuntary childlessness. Findings show that not having children, whether voluntarily or not, contributes to a kind of invisibility and poverty in Nigeria. Regardless of the reason, voluntary childlessness evoked strong negative feelings among family members. The study also shows the broad definition given to voluntary childlessness in Nigeria as including individuals that are childless because they chose to stay with an infertile partner and also those who could not have biological children and chose not to adopt. However, the study noted a more tolerant attitude to involuntary childlessness, suggesting possible changes in perceptions of the condition. Symbolic interactionist theory was adopted. Keywords: Childless, Married Couple, Fertility, Traditional belief systems, Infertilit