IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eurpop/v33y2017i1d10.1007_s10680-016-9401-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Difficulties Conceiving and Relationship Stability in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Jasmine Fledderjohann

    (Lancaster University)

Abstract

Little is known about the relationship between self-identified difficulties conceiving, biomedical infertility, and union instability in Sub-Saharan Africa. Previous research suggests that infertility increases the risk of psychological distress and marital conflict, encourages risky sexual behaviour, and deprives infertile individuals and couples of an important source of economic and social capital. Qualitative research has suggested that there may be a link between infertility and divorce; less is known about the implications of infertility for unmarried couples. In this paper, discrete-time hazard models are applied to 8 waves of secondary panel data from Ghana collected by the Population Council of New York and the University of Cape Coast (pooled n = 10,418) between 1998 and 2004. Results show a positive relationship between perceived difficulties conceiving and relationship instability for both married women and those in non-marital sexual unions; this relationship, however, does not hold for biomedical infertility. Future research should examine this relationship using nationally representative data in a cross-national comparison to determine whether results hold across the subcontinent.

Suggested Citation

  • Jasmine Fledderjohann, 2017. "Difficulties Conceiving and Relationship Stability in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Ghana," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(1), pages 129-152, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:33:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s10680-016-9401-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10680-016-9401-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10680-016-9401-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10680-016-9401-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Baffour Takyi & Christopher Broughton, 2006. "Marital Stability in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do Women’s Autonomy and Socioeconomic Situation Matter?," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 113-132, April.
    2. Sara Yeatman & Christie Sennott & Steven Culpepper, 2013. "Young Women’s Dynamic Family Size Preferences in the Context of Transitioning Fertility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(5), pages 1715-1737, October.
    3. repec:cai:popine:popu_p1999_11n1_0087 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Donkor, Ernestina S. & Sandall, Jane, 2007. "The impact of perceived stigma and mediating social factors on infertility-related stress among women seeking infertility treatment in Southern Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(8), pages 1683-1694, October.
    5. Hollos, Marida & Larsen, Ulla & Obono, Oka & Whitehouse, Bruce, 2009. "The problem of infertility in high fertility populations: Meanings, consequences and coping mechanisms in two Nigerian communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2061-2068, June.
    6. repec:cai:poeine:pope_403_0455 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gizachew Worku Dagnew & Melash Belachew Asresie & Gedefaw Abeje Fekadu & Yared Mulu Gelaw, 2020. "Factors associated with divorce from first union among women in Ethiopia: Further analysis of the 2016 Ethiopia demographic and health survey data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(12), pages 1-12, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hampshire, Katherine R. & Blell, Mwenza T. & Simpson, Bob, 2012. "‘Everybody is moving on’: Infertility, relationality and the aesthetics of family among British-Pakistani Muslims," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(7), pages 1045-1052.
    2. Paul Tiffin & Mark Pearce & Carole Kaplan & Trian Fundudis & Louise Parker, 2007. "The Impact of Socio-economic Status and Mobility on Perceived Family Functioning," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 653-667, December.
    3. Sara Yeatman & Jenny Trinitapoli & Sarah Garver, 2020. "The Enduring Case for Fertility Desires," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2047-2056, December.
    4. Bove, Riley M. & Vala-Haynes, Emily & Valeggia, Claudia R., 2012. "Women's health in urban Mali: Social predictors and health itineraries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(8), pages 1392-1399.
    5. Lauren Gaydosh, 2015. "Childhood Risk of Parental Absence in Tanzania," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(4), pages 1121-1146, August.
    6. Emily Smith-Greenaway & Christie Sennott, 2016. "Death and Desirability: Retrospective Reporting of Unintended Pregnancy After a Child’s Death," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(3), pages 805-834, June.
    7. Moore, Ann M. & Keogh, Sarah & Kavanaugh, Megan & Bankole, Akinrinola & Mulambia, Chishimba & Mutombo, Namuunda, 2014. "Bucking social norms: Examining anomalous fertility aspirations in the face of HIV in Lusaka, Zambia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 88-97.
    8. Ginevra Floridi & Maria Gargiulo & José Manuel Aburto, 2023. "Changes in fertility rates and desires in the wake of the homicide surge in Mexico," HiCN Working Papers 399, Households in Conflict Network.
    9. Yining Milly Yang & Grace Kao, 2024. "Do Resources Blunt the Impact of COVID-19 on Fertility Desires in the United States?," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 43(1), pages 1-20, February.
    10. Julia Behrman, 2015. "Does Schooling Affect Women’s Desired Fertility? Evidence From Malawi, Uganda, and Ethiopia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 787-809, June.
    11. Sarah R. Hayford & Victor Agadjanian, 2019. "Spacing, Stopping, or Postponing? Fertility Desires in a Sub-Saharan Setting," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 573-594, April.
    12. Jansen, Natalie Anne & Saint Onge, Jarron M., 2015. "An internet forum analysis of stigma power perceptions among women seeking fertility treatment in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 184-189.
    13. Julia A. Behrman & Abigail Weitzman, 2024. "State‐Level Immigrant Policies and Ideal Family Size in the United States," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 50(2), pages 375-401, June.
    14. Benson John & Natalie Nitsche, 2022. "Marital life courses in sub-Saharan Africa: all cause union dissolution, its timing, and time spent outside marriage," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2022-017, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    15. Bove, Riley & Valeggia, Claudia, 2009. "Polygyny and women's health in sub-Saharan Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 21-29, January.
    16. Ian M. Timæus & Tom A. Moultrie, 2020. "Pathways to Low Fertility: 50 Years of Limitation, Curtailment, and Postponement of Childbearing," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(1), pages 267-296, February.
    17. Jorge Ivan Gonzalez & Mauricio Perez Salazar, 2019. "Mercados y Bienestar. Ensayos en memoria de homero cuevas," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Economía, number 79, March.
    18. Kaat Van Hoyweghen & Janne Bemelmans & Hendrik Feyaerts & Goedele Van den Broeck & Miet Maertens, 2023. "Small Family, Happy Family? Fertility Preferences and the Quantity–Quality Trade-Off in Sub-Saharan Africa," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(6), pages 1-35, December.
    19. Wineman, Ayala, 2017. "Women′S Welfare And Livelihoods Outside Of Marriage: Evidence From Rural Tanzania," Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Papers 261671, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP).
    20. Hough, Carolyn A., 2010. "Loss in childbearing among Gambia's kanyalengs: Using a stratified reproduction framework to expand the scope of sexual and reproductive health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(10), pages 1757-1763, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:33:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s10680-016-9401-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.