An Assessment Of Importance Of Children In Old Age Security Provisions Among The Ijebus Of South-West, Nigeria

Abstract

The welfare of the elderly persons has received increased attention in recent years and the importance of children in old age security provisions is beginning to generate several public policy and academic concerns. In Africa, the care of older persons is falling on fewer children and those with least resources feel the impact. Hence childlessness in old age has been linked to isolation, ill health and poverty.This study set out to examine the importance of children in old age security provisions in Nigeria. Data was collected through individual-based questionnaire, this was used to elicit response to the above general objective and multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select local government areas, enumeration areas and individuals for the study. In all, 810 respondents were interviewed. The respondents were elderly men and women aged 60 years and above. The study had mire female and rural respondents than male and urban respondents. Logistic regression model was used to determine the net effects of the explanatory factors on the welfare of the elderly. The data reveals that old age security depends on the level of supports from children (60%). Also, in terms of religion, while Muslims are 1.8 times more likely to, those who are adherents of African traditional religion are 3.5 times more likely to see children as an important source of old age security than those who are Christians. In the female model, those with primary education are 4.3 times more likely to see children as an important source of old age security provisions than those with secondary education. The study found that while education, religion, and family size are significantly related to the perception of children as an important source of old age security in the male model, in the female model, only religion established similar relationship. The study concludes that the welfare of the elderly requires the strengthening of social security system. Keywords : Welfare, Value of children, Old age security, Extended famil African Journal for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Vol. 11 (1&2) 2008: pp. 46-63