Psychosocial consequences of polygamy on women and children: the case of benishangul gumuz region, mandura woreda

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the psychosocial consequences of polygamy on women and children in Mandura Woreda. A mixed research design was employed. Snowball and purposive sampling were employed to select respondents. A total of 63 participants in the Gumuz community participated in this study. From these 15 women were from polygamy families, 15 women were from monogamy families, 10 children were from polygamy families, 10 children were from monogamy families, and 3 experts from the women and children affairs office 10 elders from the Gumuz community was participated. The data was collected through interviews, FGD, and questionnaires. The collected data was analyzed through statistical software SPSS version 25 and interpreted by descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Based on finding women in polygamy family have problems in their relationships with husbands and co-wives. Consequently, there is sometimes conflict with wives due to a lack of attention from husbands. Findings show that children in a polygamous family have not that many problems with fathers, stepmothers, and other stepmother children in their relationships. The results show that women in monogamous families scored more on both self-esteem and low in depression and stress. Results shows women in Polygamy families were low in their self-esteem or feel a negative attitude towards themselves than women in monogamy families. Women in polygamous families, in contrast, were found to develop the feeling of depression and unhappiness about themselves. Women in polygamous families were highly stressed and struggle with difficult life situations due to the loss of attention from their husbands. The study also revealed that children from polygamous families have low self-esteem and highly depressed than children in monogamous families. Therefore, finding show that polygamy marriage has negative harm on women and children. Based on the finding we conclude that the polygamy type of marriage has negative psychological and social consequences on women and children in the Gumuz community. It is better than the husband should understand, and share all emotions, take equal responsibility to make life easy, and minimize the psychological burdens of polygamy marriage for women in the Gumuz community. Finally, it needs continued research on psychological impact of polygamy on women to change stereotypic ideas with the specific intention of informingthem with adequate, and long-term awareness of the misconceptions about polygamy marriages different approaches.