Elderly and value of children: Assessing the importance of children in old age security provisions in Nigeria

Elderly persons welfare has received increased attention in recent years and the importance of children in old security provisions is beginning to generate several public policy and academic concerns. This is addressed by examining children supports inform of financial support, housing, socio-emotional whether or not they live together. The study distinguished between children from monogamous family structure and those from polygynous family structure. 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. Methods Both quantitative and qualitative were collected through individual-based questionnaire, focus group discussion and individual depth interviews. Multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select local government areas, enumeration areas and individuals for the study. In all, 810 respondents were interviewed. There were also 12 Focus group discussion sessions & 10 in-depth interviews. Logistic regression model was used to determine the net effects of the explanatory factors on the welfare of the elderly. Findings 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 also discovered that rural dwellers are more likely to see children as an important source of old age surety than their urban counterparts. Introduction The study concludes that the welfare of the elderly requires the strengthening of social security system, job provision for the working population, and development of community-based programmes.