TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Table of contents v
List of tables vii
List of appendices viii
Abstract ix
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1
Statement of the problem 9
Purpose of the study 10
Operational definition of terms 10
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 12
Theoretical review 12
Empirical review 18
Summary of literature reviewed 29
Hypothesis 32
CHAPTER THREE: METHOD 33
Participants 33
Instrument 33
Procedure 37
Design/statistics 38
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS 39
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION 44
Implications of the study 47
Limitations of the study, and suggestion for further studies 47
Summary and conclusion 48
REFERENCES 51
APPENDICES 59
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1:     Table of the Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient carried out to compare the individuals with high self esteem and those with   low self esteem towards child adoption.                                39
Table 2:     The table shows the correlation of scores of participants with     locus of control on attitude towards child adoption.              40
Table 3: Â Â Â Â Shows the scores correlation coefficient of males and females attitude towards child adoption. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 41
Table 4:     Summary of correlation coefficient table carried out to correlate the attitude towards child adoption of the individuals with internal and  external locus of control, high and low self esteem, and male and   female gender.                                                                          42
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix A: Introduction page 59
Appendix B: Demographic information 60
Appendix C: Locus of control scale 61
Appendix D:       Scale measuring attitude towards child adoption            62
Appendix E:       Socio-demographic characteristics of respondents           64
Appendix F:
Item statistical analysis 65
ABSTRACT
This
study examined the relationship between locus of control, self-esteem, gender
and attitude towards child adoption in Nsukka, Enugu State. Three hundred and
three (303 people) of Nsukka local Government workers participated in the study
(150 males and 153 females). Their ages range between 21years and 55 years with
a mean age of (38.90) years. Three instruments were used for data collection
namely: self-esteem scale developed by Rosenberg (1965), locus of control scale
developed by Terry (2003) and Attitude to child adoption questionnaire. All
scales used were psychometrically sound.
Result of the Pearson’s product correlational analysis indicated that
individuals with high self-esteem expressed more positive attitude towards
child adoption than those with low self-esteem (r = 35.7; P<.005) for high
self-esteem while calculated correlation coefficient for low self-esteem is (r
– 0.35; P<.005). Results also showed that locus of control and gender had no
or little correlation coefficient towards child adoption as calculated r is (–
1.1; P< .005) for locus of control while calculated coefficient for males
and females gender is (r – 100.8) and (r – 98.3) respectively. The findings of
the study suggested that personalities are important factor in people’s
attitudes towards child adoption. It is suggested in the study that researchers
who are interested in changing people’s attitude towards child adoption policy
need to consider personality factors first and foremost. Finally, the above
results have implication for social policy and social work practice in Nsukka community,
in Enugu State.
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
The importance attached to children in most societies has made imperative that every home/family desire to have children. Besides, companionship derived from marriage, children foster love and happiness among married couples. Thus, the joy and stability that children bring to families cannot be over emphasized. This may be why couples who are unable, because of one reason or the other to bear children go for adoption.
However, adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the role of parenting for another child and in so doing permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities, along with filiations, from the biological parents or parent (Pertman, 2000). According to Logan (1996) adoption is defined as act of transferring parental rights and duties to someone other than the adopted person’s biological parents. Adoption, according to Wikipedia (2013) is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities, along with filiations, from the biological parent or parents. Unlike, guardianship or other systems design for the care of the young, adoption is intended to effect a permanent change in status of the child and as such requires societal recognition, either through legal or religious sanction.
Nevertheless, adoption practice has been in existence in an informal form prior to colonial era. The system then could be contemporarily described as fosterage. This is a situation where children could be fostered out to kin members for variety of reasons. Such reasons could be because of infertility of the fostered parent(s). Meanwhile, contemporary adoption practices can be open or closed (Logan, 1996). Open adoption, allows identifying information to be communicated between adoptive and biological parents and, perhaps interaction between kin and the adopted child. While close adoption (i.e. confidential or secret adoption) seal all identifying information, maintaining it as secret and preventing disclosure of the adoptive parents, biological kins and adoptees (Logan, 1996).
Bloodhound Team (2004) defined adoption as the legal and emotional acceptance into a parent family of a child not born to the parents but have the parents name and the same legal rights as a child by birth. By this definition adopted child assumes the identity of the adoptive parents as prescribe by the law which permit inheritance right to be transferred to the adopted child. Adopted children contemporary are being seen as orphans who have no birth rights, homeless and hopeless or any representation of such in the society. Nydam (1992) corroborates the abandoned posture of adopted child by asserting that adoption is the first of all an experience of rejection of not fitting into this world, where a child is being dismissed, separated from origins and denied the basic rights of birth, and offered up to unasked adoptive parents. He asserted that adoption should be given a new status and a new place in the world of rejection. However, in African culture a child is being considered as central to the sustenance and continual existence of happy home. In African continent adoption is seen as an arrangement by which a child whose biological parents are unable to care for is being adopted and given the same legal and social status as though he/she were the biological child of the adoptive families. For instance in some part of South Africa, the exchange of female relatives from one family to another, for marriage is meant to create enduring connections and social solidarity among families and lineages, e.g. among the Mbuti people in South Africa, sisters are being exchange for marriage. In that part of African, adoption is not seen as a means of filling the gap created in the home as a result of childlessness, but a process to solidified a close family relationship between two families (Anderson, 2012).
