Child Adoption Practices: Emerging Child Welfare Concerns in a Nigerian Community

Abstract

Background: Adoption in Nigeria operates within statutory and customary frameworks, yet informal practices, limited legal awareness, and inadequate counselling persist.

Objective: To explore adoption practices and emerging child welfare concerns in Onitsha, Nigeria, with emphasis on legal, psychosocial, and health dimensions.

Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among 62 adoptive mothers recruited through consecutive and snowball sampling. Data were collected using a pre-tested, interviewer-administered questionnaire covering socio-demographics, adoption processes, counselling, legal awareness, and child health outcomes.

Results: Most adoptive mothers (48.4%) were aged 45–54 years; 85.5% were married and 69.4% had university education. The majority of adoptees were male (69.4%) and aged 0–5 years (73.8%), with 41.9% adopted on the first day of life. Primary reasons for adoption were absence of biological children (43.5%) and desire for a male child (22.6%). While 35.2% of adopters followed official procedures, 31% reported obtaining a child through informal payments to health workers. Only 41.9% received pre-adoption counselling, and 56.5% did not undertake routine post-adoption medical checks. Reported child health challenges included neonatal jaundice, sepsis, developmental delay, cerebral palsy, seizures, malnutrition, and one mortality from congenital heart disease. Despite these challenges, 95.2% reported strong family support for child adoption.

Conclusion: Adoption in Onitsha reflects a complex interplay of cultural preference, infertility-related motivations, informal practices, and limited health screening. Strengthening regulatory oversight, mandatory counselling, and structured post-adoption medical support are critical to safeguard child welfare and optimise family outcomes.