African Family Project: Nigerian Segment, 1973

The Changing African Family Project was designed in 1972 with two purposes in mind. The first was to investigate the pre-conditions of fertility decline. The second was to study fertility decline that had already begun in an effort to determine its cause and mechanism. Three surveys were conducted in this project: Beginning of Family Limitation (BFL); Value of Children (VOC); and Achieved Small Family (ASF).

The BFL sample studied was a 1:24 one of all Yoruba females aged 15-59 years in greater Ibadan City. Interviews were obtained with 6 ,606 women. Of these, just under one-sixth or 1050 had employed some method of family planning other than sexual abstinence and hence, were interviewed with a longer questionnaire.

The Value of Children study was an investigation of the economic and social supports of high fertility in the Western and Lagos States. A stratified sample aimed at securing 3,000 interviews evenly divided by sex, of the Yoruba population over age 17 years. In fact 1,497 interviews with males and 1,499 with females were obtained. A special feature of the investigation was its attempt to measure all activities of children producing goods and services for the benefit of the family itself as well as for the outside market.

The Achieved Small Family project was specifically designed to identify all Yoruba women over age 40 years in Ibadan City who had succeeded in keeping the size of their family under six live births by deliberate intent and the use of any anti-natal practice including sexual abstinence. A total of 438 women were identified who stated they had deliberately achieved small families. Husbands were also interviewed when they had been jointly responsible for this achievement. Interviews were confined to monogamous marriages that had remained unbroken during the reproductive span; only 71 husbands in this group were interviewed.