Benue State University, Makurdi

AN EVALUATION OF THE PSYCHOSOCIAL EFFECTS OF CHILDLESSNESS IN MARRIAGE: IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL WORKERS

Osamuyi Aghasomwan BELLO
Department of Social Work,
Faculty of Social Sciences,
University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria

Abstract

Marriage is a fairly universal socioeconomic occurrence, particularly in developing nations of the world. According to previous research, the presence of children improves both partners' marital well-being since parents have deeper emotional ties with their children than when there are none. To put it differently, if a couple's desire to have and raise children is not satisfied, it can cause distress, stress, and strain, lowering the marriage's utility and perhaps leading to marital dissolution or other psychosocial difficulties connected with childlessness in marriage. Several studies in Sub-Saharan African countries have been conducted to describe the psychosocial effects of childlessness in marriage in the families of the husband of the infertile wives. As a result of childlessness in marriage in the Ogida community, this study therefore revealed various psychosocial problems, such as depression and stress, which married couples, particularly women, encounter, as well as their coping strategies for resolving these problems. This study adopted a descriptive research design with a semistructured questionnaire. The simple random sampling technique was adopted for the study.The findings of the study reveals that women in the study area suffer from numerous psychosocial issues such as anxiety disorder, depression, stress, and strain and so ondue to the problems associated with childlessness in marriage. The study therefore recommends that couples should support each other in the period in which the woman is unable to conceive and bear a child as this will go a long way to provide emotional support and stability.

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE (CLICK)