Marital partners' reproductive attitudes and fertility among the Yoruba of Nigeria

Many observers of the socio-demographic conditions of sub-Saharan Africa have argued that males and females have differential opportunities and interest in the society. Consequently, some believe that reproductive attitudes of marital partners must be divergent since the spouses have separate goals. Little empirical evidence exists to support or refute the mainly theoretical position. Using data from a longitudinal sample survey and a focus group study conducted among the Yoruba of Nigeria, I assess the nature and extent of association between the reproductive motivations and preferences of husband and wife. I also examine the effects of the desires of the spouses for additional children on each other, and on the subsequent fertility behavior of the couple. The tools of analysis are principally log-linear model, factor analytic model and structural equation model.

The study indicates that husband and wife share similar reproductive motivations and preferences among the Yoruba. Not only do the spouses tend to agree, disagreement is structured so that it is difficult to tell what spouse is more or less 'pronatalist' given a pair of marital partners who disagree. The findings suggest that the claim that husband and wife have different reproductive attitudes is not true for the Yoruba, and may be untrue for some other societies in that part of the world. The study also shows that the desires of both partners for additional children are important determinants of the fertility behavior that follows. If a spouse desires more children, the couple is likely to have one. The relative influence of the spouses' desires on fertility is, however, parity related. It is also found that the desires of both partners may be causally related. The results suggest, again, that male dominance associated with many sub-Saharan African societies may not always reflect in fertility outcome. The wife is an important fertility decision maker especially at high parities. Therefore, both spouses must by targets of policy measures aimed at influencing the fertility behavior.