Department of Sociology, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China.
Reprod Health. 2023 Mar 1;20(1):37. doi: 10.1186/s12978-023-01585-0.
Biological fathering, especially in patrilineal societies, was traditionally acceptable only in the context of marriage to the mother of the child. Many men were polygynous, often staying in one household with all their wives and children. However, this phenomenon has been on the decline in recent times, mainly due to Christianity, which encourages monogamy while frowning on polygyny. The Ghanaian family has for the past few years been undergoing changes due to migration, urbanization, and industrialization. With an increase in non-marital births and the dissolution of marital unions, multi-partner fertility is likely to increase. Contemporary Ghanaian perspectives on the circumstances that lead men to engage in paternal multi-partner fertility, otherwise referred to in this study as serial fathering, are scanty, hence this study examines the factors that lead to serial fathering among Ghanaian men.
The study employed the qualitative method, using in-depth interviews with twenty (20) serial fathers and a focus group discussion with seven (7) women.
It was found that factors such as the attitude of women in relationships, the duolocal post-marital residential pattern, and the age at first birth are some of the reasons why some men father children with multiple partners.
The study concludes that both situational and personal factors account for the phenomenon of serial fathering amongst men in Prampram, Ghana, and these factors bring about distinctions in serial fathering as occurring either within or outside of marriage.
在传统社会中，亲生父亲的角色，特别是在父系社会中，通常只在与孩子的母亲结婚的情况下才被接受。许多男性是多配偶制的，他们经常与所有的妻子和孩子一起住在一个家庭里。然而，这种现象在最近已经有所减少，主要是由于基督教鼓励一夫一妻制，同时反对多配偶制。在过去的几年里，加纳家庭由于移民、城市化和工业化而发生了变化。非婚生子女的增加和婚姻关系的破裂，可能导致多伴侣生育的增加。当代加纳人对导致男性参与多伴侣生育（在本研究中也称为连续生育）的情况的看法很少，因此本研究考察了导致加纳男性连续生育的因素。
本研究采用定性方法，对 20 名连续生育的男性进行了深入访谈，并对 7 名女性进行了焦点小组讨论。
研究发现，一些男性与多个伴侣生育孩子的原因包括：伴侣关系中女性的态度、双居婚后居住模式以及首次生育的年龄等因素。
本研究得出结论，无论是情境因素还是个人因素，都导致了加纳普拉姆普拉姆地区男性连续生育的现象，这些因素导致了连续生育的发生，既有在婚姻内的，也有在婚姻外的。
