Bonferroni test of religious affiliation and fertility behaviour among young women in Nigeria: Evidence from 2013 NDHS survey

Abstract

Despite that numbers of sub - Saharan African countries are witnessing fertility reduction, Nigeria is witnessing fertility increase. One of the factors attributed to this is variations in socio-demographic characteristics of which religious affiliation was enlisted. Different religious affiliation in Nigeria has a way of indoctrinating members into forcefully accepting the less effective method of contraception through imposition, which translated into more births and which could hamper the country’s population policy of limiting the number of children to four per couple. This study therefore examined the relationship between religious affiliation and fertility behaviour of young women in Nigeria using 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). Data was analysed at univariate (frequency distributions), bivariate (ANOVA and Bonferroni test) to examine the relationship between religious Affiliation and Fertility behaviour and multivariate levels (Poisson logistic regression). Findings revealed that the women with more than three children were more among Islamic religious group than other religious groups. The findings revealed and concluded that there is significant relationship between religious affiliation and fertility behaviour after controlling for other covariates (p<0.005). The study thereby recommend campaign among religious leaders, faithfuls against high fertility among young women in the country.