SINGLE MOTHERHOOD AND FAMILY DIVERSITIES IN NIGERIA AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF AKWA IBOM AND CROSS RIVER STATES
ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this study was to examine the trend of single motherhood and family diversities in Nigeria. Literature related to the variables under study was reviewed accordingly. Secondary data from hospital records were used for the study. Two theoretical framework: Structural functionalist theory and theory of separateness and connectedness were used for better explanation of the phenomenon under study. Descriptive statistics was adopted for the study. Secondary data from Health Information Management record of all pregnant mothers who attended Ante-natal clinic in University of Uyo Teaching Hospital from year 2000 – 2015 was used as the only instrument for data collection, and a total study population of 27425 married and single pregnant mothers were used for the study. Data were collected and analyzed using frequency tables and percentages. The findings of the study revealed decrease in single motherhood with corresponding increase in married families over the increasing population within the period of the study.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGES
Abstract —– —– —– —– —– —– —– i
Table of Contents —– —– —– —– —– —– —– ii
Background of the Study —– —– —– —– —– —– 1
Introduction —– —– —– —– —– —– —– —– 3
Statement of the Problem —– —– —– —– —– —– 5
Objectives of the Study —– —– —– —– —– —– 7
Significance of the Study —– —– —– —– —– —– 8
Research Questions —– —– —– —– —– —– 8
Scope of the Study —– —– —– —– —– —– 8
Definition of Terms —– —– —– —– —– —– 9
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 10
Literature Review —– —– —– —– —– —– —– 10
Family Types and Parenthood —– —– —– —– —– 10
Single Mother Families —– —– —– —– —– 13
Family Diversities —– —– —– —– —– —– 17
Theoretical Framework —– —– —– —– —– —– 18
Structural-Functionalist Perspective —– —– —– —– —– 18
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Theory of Separation and Connectedness —– —– —– —– 19
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY —– —– —– —– —– 21
Research Design —– —– —– —– —– —– 21
Research Area —– —– —– —– —– —– 21
Population of the Study —– —– —– —– —– —– 22
Sample Technique and Sample Size —– —– —– —– —– 22
Instrument/Procedure for Data Collection —– —– —– —– 22
Procedure for Data Analysis —– —– —– —– —– 22
RESULT —– —– —– —– —– —– —– 23
Interpretation of Result —– —– —– —– —– —– 27
Conclusion —– —– —– —– —– —– —– —– 28
Recommendation —– —– —– —– —– —– —– 28
Suggestion for Further Studies —– —– —– —– —– 28
References —– —– —– —– —– —– —– 29
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The family has been acknowledged universally as the oldest institution in the history of human race. It is also universally recognized as the primary agency of socialization. According to Ibia (1999), this does not mean that families are identical the world over and consequently follow similar socialization process. The differences in family patterns have rendered many definitions of the term inadequate, because of the tendency of some writers to look at the problem only from the point of view of their own societies and allow the universally varied definition to suffer from such limitations.
Bredemeir and Stephenson (1966) defined the family as a group of related kinds linked by blood and marriage, who occupy a common household and are usually characterized by economic corporate and solidarity. According to the definition, a family is formed as a social phenomenon within the framework of the two ties; blood and marriage. The relationship between the members of the family is therefore both biological and social. While the relationship between the parents is purely social since their union is only possible through socially recognized patterns of marriage. Looking at family from this perspective, every adult individual belongs to two kinds of families: the one to which an individual belongs biologically being family of orientation and the one to which an individual belongs socially is referred to as the family of procreation. It may not be correct to say that all family members occupy a common household especially in African societies. It is a common practice in Africa for a child of one household to live among members of another. Although such a child, while staying in another household may be socially integrated the fact still remains that he may go back to his own family any time he wishes as there is no adoption system in most African cultures.
Another view about the family is expressed by Ogburn and Nimkoff (1940). They maintain that, a couple is expected to establish a household, and to live there cooperatively on terms largely prescribed by the customs and laws of the community. The children of the association are part and parcel of the parental household even if they live in another households for a time, but generally at an age which varies from society and depends on parental circumstances. Whether or not they live outside their parental household, the children remain bound to the family by sentiment and/or by property interest. According to them, the extended family system in Africa does not allow an individual to break away from his family of orientation for life. The family of procreation to which an individual belongs is considered in many African societies as a part of the larger family of orientation.
According to Ezewu (1983), in Africa the family includes the parents, brothers, and sisters of the couple and the children of their brothers and sisters. This concept of the family embraces the whole lineage. Sexual right and prohibitions are prescribed by the larger society for both husband and wife. While the husband may have sexual rights outside the wedlock, the woman does not. This is so because her services which include sexual responsibility, have been legally secured by her husband.
However, the family of today is not what it was a century ago, or even a generation ago. New roles, new gender distinctions, new child-rearing patterns have all combined to create new forms of family life. Today for example, more and more women are taking the bread-winners role, whether married or as a single parent. Blended families – the result of divorce and remarriage – are almost the norm. And many people are seeking intimate relationships outside marriage, whether it be in gay partnership or in cohabiting arrangements.
The family eventhough is universal, differ from one culture to another and even within the same culture. Globally, among Tibetans, a woman may be married simultaneously to more than one man, usually brothers. This system allows sons to share the limited amount of good land. Among the Betsileo of Madagasca, a man has multiple wives, each one living in a different village where he cultivates rice. Where ever he has the best rice field, that wife is considered his first senior wife. Among the Yanomamo of Brazil and Venezuela, it is considered proper to have sexual relationship with your opposite-sex cousins, if they are the children of your mother’s sister or your father’s brother, the same practice is considered to be incest (Haviland et al, 2005; Kottak, 2000). These illustrate variations in family from culture to culture. Yet the family as a social institution exist in all cultures. Moreover, certain general principles concerning its composition, kinship patterns and authority patterns are universal. Therefore deviation in its concept and application undermine the norms and values of the society.
However, the rising divorce rates, cohabitation before marriage, increasing numbers of single parents families and single person household and other trends, all suggested that individuals were basing their lives less and less around conventional families. Some have seen these changes as symptoms of greater individualism within modern societies. They welcomed what appears to be an increasing range of choice for individuals. People no longer have to base their lives around what may be outmoded and for many unsuitable conventional family structures. Others however, lamented the changes and worried about their effect on society. Such changes according to Haralambos and Holborn are seen as both a symptom and a cause of instability and insecurity in people’s lives and in society as a whole. The study therefore, examine single parent-hood and family household diversities with particular reference to single mother families.
Introduction
This study focus on single motherhood and family or household diversity which occurs as a result of changes in the society resulting in ever more diverse family forms as argued by a famous American Feminist Barrie Thorne (1992). She challenged the ideology of the monolithic family which elevated the nuclear family with a breadwinner husband and a full-time wife and mother as the only legitimate family form. She believes the focus on the family unit neglects structures of society that lead to variations in families: ‘Structures of gender, generation, race and class result in widely varying experiences of family life, which are obscured by the glorification of the nuclear family, motherhood and the family as a loving refuge. She further stressed that the idea of the family involves falsifying the actual variety of household forms, which have always varied in composition, even in the 1950s and early 1960s when the ideology was more obviously inappropriate since changes in society had resulted in diverse family forms.
The view that such images equate with reality was attacked by Robert and Rhona Rapoport (1982). They drew attention to the fact that in 1978, for example, just 20 percent of families in Britain consisted of married couples with children in which there was a single breadwinner. In 1989, Rhona Rapoport argued that family diversity was a global trend: a view supported by a family life in Europe. At the end of the 1980s the European coordination centre for Research and Documentation in social sciences organized a cross cultural study of family life in 14 European nations. All European countries had experience rising devoice rates and many had made it easier to get divorced. Cohabitation appeared to have become more common in most countries, and the birth rate had decline everywhere. There was a consistent pattern of convergence in diversity. While family life retained considerable variations from country to country, throughout Europe a greater range of family types was being accepted as legitimate and normal (Katja Boh, 1989).
Single parenthood therefore, refers to bringing up children in a variety of domestic settings other than the father-mother-child unit, and thus introduces a wide range of possible new household and family types (Beck-Gernsheim, 2002). United States Forum on child and family statistics defines single parent household as a household that consist of a parent with children under 18 years of age. According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, single parent, sometimes called a solo parent is a parent not living with a spouse or partner, who has most of the day-to-day responsibilities in raising the child or children. A single parent is usually considered the primary caregiver, meaning the parent the children have residency with the majority of time. If the parents are separated or divorced, children live with their custodial parent and have visitation or secondary residence with their non-custodial parent. In Western Society in general, following separation a child will end up with the primary caregiver, usually the mother and a secondary caregiver usually the father.
SINGLE MOTHERHOOD AND FAMILY DIVERSITIES IN NIGERIA: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF AKWA IBOM AND CROSS RIVER STATES
