SOCIO-CULTURAL CHALLENGES OF CHILD ADOPTION IN EASTERN NIGERIA IN WEST AFRICA

The importance of child adoption to infertile couples seeking for children, and children in need of parents cannot be over emphasized. In Eastern Nigeria, child adoption faces socio-cultural challenges due to cultural norms and beliefs, social expectations and values. This study investigated the socio-cultural challenges of child adoption in Eastern Nigeria.To achieve this, two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study was the entire couples in Eastern Nigeria. Disproportionate stratified random sampling was used to select 800 couples. Among these, 400 couples are childless, while the other 400 couples have biological children. A descriptive survey was used, while questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. The result was analyzed using mean scores, standard deviations and t-test. The findings revealed poverty, bastard syndrome, and denial of inheritance among others as some of the challenges of child adoption. The data also showed that childlessness, and gender selection among others is some of the reasons for adoption.The data also revealed that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of the males and females in what constitute the socio-cultural challenges of child adoption in Eastern Nigeria. There is a significant difference between the mean scores of childless couples and couples with biological children in the reasons for adoption. The summary of the findings was that child adoption is very difficult to practice in Eastern Nigeria. The study also made some recommendations and implications