Perception of child adoption among parents/care‑givers of children attending pediatric outpatients’ clinics in Enugu, South East, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: There has been an increasing interest by couples in child adoption due to its acceptability in recent times in our locale. The enactment of the Child’s Right Act in Nigeria has harmonized child adoption process across the nation. With the rising demand for babies from child care institutions by many Nigerian couples, there is need to ascertain their perception of child adoption.
Objectives: To evaluate the perception of child adoption among parents/care‑givers of children attending Pediatric Clinics in Enugu.
Materials and Methods: The parents and care‑givers of children attending pediatrics out‑patients clinics in Enugu, Enugu State, South East, Nigeria  served as the respondents. Two hundred and fifty nine of them were selected by convenience sampling method after obtaining their informed written consent. The data were obtained using semi ‑ structured questionnaire that was administered by an interviewer and subsequently analyzed using SPSS Version 15.0.
Results: Many caregivers (respondents) (94.2.7%) had heard of child adoption and 79.2% of them understood the actual meaning of the term child adoption. About 1.9% of them had adopted previously. Majority of the respondents (73.87%) prefers to adopt a child during its neonatal age with a slight preference for adoption of male babies. 15.1% and 8.9% of the respondents gave private hospitals and middle men, respectively, as sources of child adoption. Knowledge of the Government adoption laws and process was generally below average (49.2%) among the respondents.
Conclusion: Continued advocacy and public enlightenment campaigns should be strengthened in order to harmonize adoption process in our setting.

Key words: Child adoption, parents/care‑givers, perception