KNOWLEDGE OF CHILD ADOPTION AND ADOPTION SERVICES BY CIVIL SERVANTS IN IBADAN, NIGERIA

Adoption provides an alternative for childless couples to have their own children, but the knowledge of this option and its services affects people’s choice. This study assessed the awareness and depth of knowledge of adoption among 403 civil servants working in the Oyo State Secretariat, Ibadan, Nigeria.This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted between February and May, 2008. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of child adoption, laws and services. Each correct knowledge question had a score of 1 and each wrong knowledge question had a score of 0. Total scores were computed for each respondent. Knowledge scores which ranged from 0-5 and from 6-13 were considered low and high, respectively. Descriptive and Chi-square statistics were used for data analysis.Mean age of respondents was 40.2 ± 9.7 years. Sixty five percent had tertiary education, 77.4% were married, and 53.3% were senior civil servants. Majority (91.8%) child adoption; of these 65.1% could its Sixty three percent were aware of adoption services; of these, 33.0% where adoption were and 47.3% were adoption Also adopted 16.9% high knowledge Respondents who tertiary were others (p< 0.05). Majority of respondents child services but knowledge of the details was low. Efforts should be made to enlighten the public about adoption.

Adoption provides an alternative for childless couples to have their own children, but the knowledge of this option and its services affects people's choice. This study assessed the awareness and depth of knowledge of adoption among 403 civil servants working in the Oyo State Secretariat, Ibadan, Nigeria.This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted between February and May, 2008. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of child adoption, laws and services. Each correct knowledge question had a score of 1 and each wrong knowledge question had a score of 0. Total scores were computed for each respondent. Knowledge scores which ranged from 0-5 and from 6-13 were considered low and high, respectively. Descriptive and Chisquare statistics were used for data analysis.Mean age of respondents was 40.2 ± 9.7 years. Sixty five percent had tertiary education, 77.4% were married, and 53.3% were senior civil servants. Majority (91.8%) had heard about child adoption; of these 65.1% could correctly state its meaning. Sixty three percent were aware of adoption services; of these, 33.0% knew where adoption services were provided and 47.3% were aware of adoption laws. Also (41.1%) knew someone that had adopted a child. Overall, 16.9% had high knowledge scores. Respondents who had tertiary education were more knowledgeable about adoption than others (p< 0.05). Majority of respondents were aware of child adoption services but knowledge of the details was low. Efforts should be made to enlighten the public about adoption.

(04), 1059-1067
1060 Various beliefs about the causes of infertility as well as failure of orthodox methods of treatment have caused many couples to seek non-orthodox solutions from native doctors and faith healers without success (Araoye, 2003).
Adoption is a legal proceeding requiring a hearing before a judge. The process usually involves paperwork, homestudy, referral or matching with an appropriate child and court sessions (Heritage Adoption Services, 2007). The dossier is a set of documents containing information about the adoptive persons. Home study is a written report of the findings of the social worker on the applicants. Adoption may be domestic or international and laws governing domestic and international adoption vary from country to country and state to state. Most countries permit couples to adopt, but do not permit single individuals to do so because of the need for a mother and a father figure. Some countries, however, allow single adults to adopt same sex children (Commonwealth Adoptions International, 2006). There are different age limits for the adoptive parents and adopted child. Adoption fees also vary. In some countries, the adoptive parents must meet certain minimum standards of education, financial capability and health status (International Adoption Guides, 2006). Local and international adoption agencies assist prospective adoptive parents in identifying the children they desire and with the processes involved in adoption.
For the adoptive parents, adoption costs and assistance vary between countries. The cost for domestic adoption ranges from free in Oyo State, Nigeria (Adejumobi, 2001) to $40,000 or more in America depending on a number of factors including the type of adoption, the type of placement agency or facilitator, and the child's age and circumstances (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2003). On the other hand, many adoption programmes will give financial assistance to adopters. Some jurisdictions offer tax credits to offset the cost of adoption. In the United States there is a $10,000 tax credit for adoption of special needs children. Adoptions through the child welfare system typically do not cost the adopting family anything beyond minor legal or other types of documented fees. The same is true in Canada (Kiff, 2007). International adoption can cost between $7,000 and $30,000, and sometimes more, depending on the country and number of trips the parents are required to make (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2003). Gibbs et al (2006) reported that most children adopted from foster care in the United States in recent years received an adoption subsidy. Several characteristics of adopted children were associated with subsidy receipt and amount, including age, race and ethnicity, and special needs status. Subsidy receipt and amount also varied with adoptive families' characteristics, such as pre-adoptive relationship with the child, family structure, and maternal race and ethnicity.
Adoption is not popular in Nigeria and the system is often not transparent. In general, foreigners who first obtain temporary custody (foster care) of a child for a period may adopt such a child. Adoption rules differ from state to state: adoptive parents must foster their children for at least 3 months in Lagos State, whereas in Akwa Ibom State they are required to foster for at least one year. The Federal Capital Territory Abuja requires that at least one parent should be Nigerian (International adoption -Nigeria, 2006). Adoption is not well embraced and its services are poorly publicized in Nigeria. Adoption services are offered by the Department of Social Welfare in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community development and Social Welfare. Civil servants are enlightened and knowledgeable and their perception of adoption and its services can influence other people's opinions and decision. The decision to adopt a child would depend on the awareness of adoption, availability of its services and its acceptability to the couple, their families, friends and colleagues.
In a study in Enugu, Nigeria to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of adoption among 264 infertile Nigerian women, Ezugwu et al (2002) found that though 228 (86.4%) of the respondents were aware of child adoption, only 72 (27.3%) knew its correct meaning and 57 (21.6%) knew how to adopt a baby.
Oladokun et al, (2009a) carried out a study by focus group discussions on the acceptability of adoption as a treatment option for the management of infertility in Ibadan, South-Western Nigeria. The study found that some respondents were able to correctly define child adoption, describe the processes involved and were aware of adoption laws. However, a cross-sectional study of 607 respondents in Ibadan metropolis showed that 95.2% were aware of child adoption, 47.8% had knowledge of adoption laws and 39.2% were aware of the existence of adoption services (Oladokun et al, 2009b). Oladokun et al (2010) also conducted a study on attitude to adoption among 396 1061 women seeking treatment for infertility in a tertiary hospital in Ibadan. It was found that 55% of the respondents were aware that child adoption was possible.
Onah and Ogbuokiri (2002) studied the knowledge and attitude of fertile and infertile Nigerians regarding child adoption. The respondents were 1953 resident in Enugu metropolis, 288 (14.7%) respondents had been infertile for a while the remaining 1665 (85.3%) were fertile. The infertile and fertile respondents did not differ significantly in their knowledge of child adoption.

Adoption laws for Oyo State, Nigeria:
The Oyo state adoption laws as contained in the Adoption edict of 1984 stipulates that the child must be an indigene of the state and the applicant must be resident in the state and the consent of the applicant's spouse is essential before an adoption order is made. An applicant should be at least 25 years old and 21 years older than the child and the sole applicant cannot be a male if the child is a female unless the court is satisfied in special circumstances, e.g. the degree of consanguinity (Adejumobi, 2001).
The Social welfare department of the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community Development & Social Welfare is in charge of adoption matters in Oyo state. An applicant is expected to apply to any of the four zonal offices: Ibadan-Ibarapa (at Iyaganku), Oyo, Saki and Ogbomosho. The child should be in the continuous care and possession of the applicant for at least three consecutive months during which 21 days advertisement is made so that the parents or relations can claim the child. An adoption order is made to the juvenile court. The final discharge papers are issued after two years. No fees are paid. Some of the children that are adopted are from the Child Care Unit, Ijokodo which was established in 1981 for abandoned children aged 0-6 years.

Materials and Methods:-Study Area:
This study was done among civil servants in the Oyo State Secretariat, Ibadan, South-Western Nigeria. There were 15 ministries located in the secretariat with an estimate of 6,075 staff.

Study Population:
The study population was civil servants who work in Oyo State Secretariat, Ibadan excluding those who work in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community Development & Social Welfare which is in charge of adoption matters.

Study Design:
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between February and May, 2008. The estimated total number of staff in these ministries was 577. Questionnaires were administered to all consenting staff that were available during the period of the study. Four hundred and three questionnaires were completed and returned.

Research instrument:
Self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Questionnaire was pre-tested in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community Development and Social Welfare and appropriate amendments were made.

Data Management:
Questionnaires were checked for errors and omissions at the end of each day. Data were entered into the computer and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Data error were checked for and corrected. Frequencies, proportions, percentages, means and appropriate tables and diagrams of relevant variables were generated. Cross tabulations were done and Chi square test were used to test associations between variables at 5% level of significance. Thirteen questions were used to assess respondent's knowledge of adoption. Each correct knowledge question was given a score of 1 and each wrong knowledge question had a score of 0. Total score was computed for each respondent. Knowledge scores 0-5 and 6-13 were considered poor and good knowledge, respectively.

Ethical consideration:
Permission for the study was obtained from the Oyo State Ethical Review Committee. Informed verbal consent was obtained from research participants before administration of the questionnaires.

Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents:
A total of 403 civil servants out of 420 who were approached for the study responded to the questionnaire giving a response rate of 96.0%. The mean age of respondents was 40.2 ± 9.7 years (Table 1).

Knowledge of child adoption:
The majority of the respondents (91.8%) had heard about child adoption, however, only about half (59.8%) could correctly define it. A third of the respondents (37.7%) knew at least one person who had adopted a child and a few (16.4%) knew someone who would like to adopt a child. Knowledge of the various aspects of child adoption is shown in Table 2.  (Table 3). The median knowledge score was 3 (range 0-10).   Table 5 shows the source of the adopted children known to the respondents. Most of the adopted children (58.6%) were from orphanages. Others were either abandoned (31.6%), given up by birth parents to adoptive parents (3.9%), transferred from mothers who had unwanted pregnancies to adoptive parents through an intermediary agency (3.3%), members of the extended family (2.6%). Most respondents (65.8%) who knew cases of adoption did not know how the adoptions were contracted. Thirty two (21.0%) of the adoptions were said to be through legal procedures and social welfare service, 14 (9.2%) were said to have taken abandoned children into their homes, 3 (2.0%) were privately arranged between birth and adoptive parents, and 3 (2.0%) were through agencies/hospitals that arrange for transfer of babies from birth mothers to adoptive parents. This is shown in table 6.

Respondents' socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge of adoption laws and services:
In terms of tertiary education, about one-fifth of respondents (20.9%) who have tertiary education had good knowledge score, whereas only about one-tenth (9.3%) of those who did not have tertiary education had good knowledge score. This result is statistically significant, p = 0.003. A higher proportion (18.8%) of the senior staff had a good knowledge of adoption when compared to the junior staff (13.4%) but this was not statistically significant (p = 0.167). Also, a higher proportion of respondents who experienced some delay in having children (20.4%) had good knowledge score when compared to respondents who had no delay (17.1%) and this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.574). There was no association between sex, religion, marital status and knowledge of adoption. These results are shown in Table 7. However, knowledge of the correct meaning of adoption was higher among respondents in this study (59.8%), than among the infertile women in Ibadan, 55% (Oladokun et al, 2010) and among the infertile women in Enugu where only 27.3% knew its correct meaning (Ezugwu et al, 2002). This may be explained by the fact that the civil servants are closer to the source of information on adoption.
Knowledge about the processes involved in adoption was low among the study population (15.7%). This was lower than that found in the study among the infertile women where 21.6% knew how to adopt a baby. The infertile women who have considered adoption could have made enquiries into the processes involved in adoption since 30.7% of the women had expressed their willingness to adopt a baby and 4.5% of them had either adopted or made effort to adopt a child at the time of the study.
The proportion of respondents in this study who were aware of the existence of adoption laws was 43.3%. Oladokun et al (2009b) reported a proportion of 47.8% among respondents in Ibadan. It also shows that the level of awareness among the general population is similar to that of civil servants in Ibadan. However, 57.8% of the respondents in this study were aware of the existence of adoption services as compared to 39.2% found by Oladokun et al (2009b). This higher proportion among civil servants can also be attributed to the proximity of their work place to the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community Development and Social Welfare which is in charge of adoption services.
About a third (37.7%) of the respondents in this study knew someone who has adopted a child. This proportion is small when compared to the study among Americans by Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute (2002) where about two-thirds (64%) of the respondents have experienced adoption within their own families or among close friends. However, the number of respondents who have experience adoption within their own families or among close friends in America dropped to 40% in 2017 (Dave Thomas, 2017), Statistics also show that adoption is more commonly practiced in developed countries like America than in developing countries (U. S. Department of State, 2007). Americans reported thinking more about adopting children and expecting to have more adopted children than did Brazilians (Levine and West, 2005).

Conclusion:-
In this cross-sectional descriptive study of civil servants' knowledge of child adoption and adoption services in Ibadan, awareness of adoption and adoption services was high but in-dept knowledge of the adoption laws and the processes involved in adoption was low. Respondent's with higher educational status were more knowledgeable than those with lower educational attainment. This study also showed higher education to be the only factor that was significantly associated with good knowledge of adoption.

Limitations:
1. Some respondents may not have known whether the adoption cases they knew were actually legally adopted or fostered. They were reminded of the difference between the two before they answered the question. 2. The limited scope of the study to the State secretariat prevents its generalizability to all civil servants.

Recommendations:-
In order to improve adoption services, the following recommendations are made: 1. The Ministry of Women Affairs, Community Development and Social Welfare should create awareness in the mass media about adoption as an alternative to having biological children. Information on adoption services should be made available.