| Abstract: | The relative influences of marriage patterns, education, and religion on the high level of fertility in the East-Central state of Nigeria are examined, with data drawn from a KAP survey of 755 men and 916 women (745 rural and 171 urban). Polygynous marriages existed in 31% of rural and 7% of urban households surveyed. Fertility was relatively lower in all marriage duration groups among polygynists, but the differences were not significant (contingency coefficient 0.01000). Results are limited, however, by the instability of polygyny status, the subfecundity factor, the index of fertility used, and the older age of polygynously married women. 53% of rural women surveyed were Catholic, and their fertility was higher than that of non-Catholics (contingency coefficient 0.01217). But it cannot be ensured that the religious differential is solely a function of pronatalist religious belief or partly a reflection of ethnic differences or an attempt by the Ibos to ensure an increase in population to maximize their share of federal allocations. Uneducated women were more fertile than their educated counterparts (contingency coefficient 0.03129), implying that fertility will decline as the literacy level in the state improves. The potential of education to effectuate a decline in fertility is illustrated by the observation that education tends to give religious people the same liberal attitudes toward family planning as are held by those who are less religious. The gap between knowledge of birth control methods and the practice of family planning is a greater obstacle to fertility control than religiousity, and this gap is greater among those with lower levels of education. |
