Fertility Attitudes Among Male Ghanaian Government Employees

Abstract

This paper examines the fertility attitudes of 484 Ghanaian male government employees. Most fertility/family planning research in Ghana has focused on women to the neglect of men. In an attempt to bridge the knowledge gap between female and male fertility attitudes, this paper investigated four dimensions: 1) perceptions of population problems in Ghana; 2) attitudes towards abortion and family planning; 3) attitudes towards children; and 4) attitudes towards family size. In general, the findings indicate that (1) the majority of the males believe that Ghana's population is too large; (2) they agree that abortion should be legalized and made accessible to any woman who wishes to have abortion, but on the other hand, disagree with government's interference with the number of children a couple should have; (3) they have a positive attitude toward child-bearing; (5) they believe in continued reproduction until the desired proportion of boys and girls are obtained; (6) they do not agree that there should be a relationship between the number of children a couple bear and available family resources; and (7) they believe that an educated man should have as many children as possible even though educational status is found to be inversely related to number of children, ideal number of children, and ideal number of female children. Implications of the findings and future research issues are discussed.