The Silent Struggle: Unpacking Social Perceptions of Childlessness among Married Couples

The study examined the social perceptions of childlessness towards married couples in the society. An objective and one research question alongside one hypothesis were raised for the study. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. A population of 160,301women in 65communities in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State was used. A sample of 100womenfrom 5 communities was used and this was done via multi-stage sampling technique of Random sampling technique and Proportionate sampling technique. The questionnaire titled “Socio-cultural Impact of Childlessness on Married Couples Questionnaire (SICMCQ)” was used as instrument to collect relevant data. The instrument was validated by some experts and its reliability was tested for to be 0.75. The data collected, were analyzed using frequency, mean and percentage for the research questions and Chi-square was used to test for the hypotheses. The findings from the study showed that childlessness brings about a high level of negative social impacts on married couples in diverse ways with mean ( = 3.18). Based on this, it was recommended that proper awareness should be given to couples as to the factors that are inherent to cause childlessness for them.. Also, policies should be generated towards protecting the rights of couples in the society, regardless of what they might be facing.