生育意愿

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Using longitudinal data from Jiangsu Fertility Intention and Behaviour Study (JFIBS) from year 2007 and 2010, this study analyses the fertility intention and behaviour of women who are qualified to have two children from a psychosocial point of view. Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the theoretical framework from fertility intention to fertility behaviour is reconstructed. By observing the phenomenon from the micro-level, the gap between female fertility intention and behaviour and its associated factors are studied. The result shows that, given the situation of being qualified to have two children according to the government's birth control policy, when faced with the choice of whether to have a second child or not, people tend to make their decisions rationally. Attitudes towards fertility, subjective norms, and perceived behaviour control all contribute significantly to the discrepancy between fertility intention and behaviour. In addition, the formation of a concrete birth plan is a major driving force for translating fertility intention into action.

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China's three-child policy was implemented in May 2021 to stimulate a rise in fertility levels. However, few previous studies have explored fertility intentions to have a third child and have only focused on childless or one-child populations, resulting in a gap in findings between fertility intention and fertility behavior. Thus, we conducted a nationwide cross-sectional study on 1308 participants with two children. Results showed that only 9.6% of participants reported planning to have a third child and 80.2% of the population had heard of the policy but had no idea of the detailed contents. Participants with two daughters (OR = 3.722, 95% CI = 2.304-6.013) were willing to have one more child. Instrumental values (OR = 1.184, 95% CI = 1.108-1.265) and policy support (OR = 1.190, 95% CI = 1.124-1.259) were the facilitators. Perceived risk (OR = 0.883, 95% CI = 0.839-0.930) and higher educational level (OR = 0.693, 95% CI = 0.533-0.900) were the leading barriers to having one more child. Therefore, the government should deepen parents' understanding of the "three-child policy" and devise ways of reducing the negative impacts of having a third child to boost the intention to have more children. Our proposed approach can also be used to better understand the reasons for low fertility rates in other countries.

Overall, couples with one or two children in Shanghai had a low intention to give birth to a second or third child. In order to increase the birth rates, it is necessary to implement policies to reduce the burden of raising children and provide relief to parent's pressure of rearing a child with increased free time.

Abstract This paper reports the fertility intension of women based on data from the national fertility survey in 2017 in China (CFS 2017), after implementation of the universal two-child policy, and analyses major related factors. The reported ideal number of children is 1.96 in average, and the intended number of children is 1.76, with obvious differences among different regions. The ideal number of children is highly correlated with the intended number of children, and intended number of children is related to number of children women already have. Women who have had one child intend to have fewer children than women who have not yet had a child. Women who have not yet had any child intend to have 1.60 children in average. The preference of boy varies by intended number of children.

This study describes the fertility intention and explores factors related to fertility intention in reproductive-age women with breast cancer in Taiwan. In this cross-sectional study, women of childbearing age who had been diagnosed with breast cancer completed a face-to-face survey that included demographic, disease, and symptom-related data, and social support and fertility intention information. The mean fertility intention score among the 223 participants was "medium" (<i>M</i> ± <i>SD</i> = 41.18 ± 12.62). Higher symptom severity, especially for distress, was related to lower fertility intention. Instrumental support from families and friends was positively associated with fertility intention score. Younger women had better fertility intention scores than older women. The Sobel test showed that age mediated menopause and fertility intention. The findings offer the evidence of the needs to control symptoms and provide sufficient instrumental support regarding fertility after completing chemotherapy.

A growing number of young people tend to regard their pets as their surrogate children, yet research examining the relationship between pet attachment and fertility intention remains scarce. Moreover, individuals' fertility intention is affected by economic resources. Therefore, we conducted two studies to examine the interaction effect of pet attachment and subjective socioeconomic status (SES) on childbearing-aged individuals' fertility intention. In Study 1, we utilized questionnaires to measure Chinese pet owners' pet attachment, subjective SES, and fertility intention. In Study 2, participants' pet attachment was experimentally manipulated by reading articles about the benefits of petkeeping. The results of the two studies consistently demonstrated that the effect of pet attachment on fertility intention was moderated by subjective SES. Specifically, pet attachment was negatively associated with fertility intention when individuals had a high level of subjective SES, whereas this effect disappeared when individuals had low subjective SES. These findings suggest an explanation for why individuals with high subjective SES delay or even opt out of childbearing. The limitations and implications of the current study are discussed.

Persistent low fertility rates are an increasing concern for countries with low fertility like Iran. Informed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study examined the immediate factors influencing fertility intentions, using data from the 2012 Tehran Survey of Fertility Intentions. The findings show that more than half of young married adults in Tehran intend to have no more children. The multivariate analysis results indicate that individuals who view childbearing as being detrimental to their personal life, feel less normative pressure to have a/another child, and believe their childbearing decision is not contingent on the presence of economic resources required for childbearing, are more likely to want no (more) children or to be unsure rather than to want a/another child. Attitudes and normative pressure are dominant factors influencing the intention to have a first child, while the intention to have a second child is mainly affected by attitudes and perceived constraints. The policy implications of the results are discussed.

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The FIS has acceptable reliability, content validity, and construct validity. This scale is appropriate for use in research and clinical practice settings to evaluate the risk-benefit perceptions of pregnancy in patients with breast cancer.

It seems that designing and implementing educational programs to improve attitudes, promoting positive subjective norms, and enhancing enabling factors can play a major role in increasing fertility intention in women.

A decline in the fertility rate has been observed worldwide, which hampers social development severely. Given the impacts of COVID-19 on individuals and society, it is of great significance to investigate the fertility intention of reproductive couples under COVID-19. The convenience sampling method was used to obtain our study sample. The self-administered questionnaire included the following components: sociodemographic characteristics (age, residence, education, occupation, characteristics of the couples, and annual household income), reproductive history (parity, number of children, child gender, and duration of preparing pregnancy), and attitudes toward COVID-19, was distributed online <i>via</i> an applet of WeChat. The results showed that among 4,133 valid questionnaires, 1,091 had fertility intention before COVID-19, whereas 3,042 did not, indicating a fertility intention rate of 26.4% among participating couples. Of the 1,091 couples who had fertility intention before COVID-19, 520 (47.7%) were affected by the outbreak, whereas 571 (52.3%) were not. By multivariable logistic regression analysis, we further found that couples living in Hubei Province, the epicenter in China (OR 2.20, 95% CI 1.35-3.60), and couples who prepared for pregnancy longer before COVID-19 (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.06-1.33) were more likely to change their fertility intention under the pandemic. In addition, most of the participants reported their fertility intention was affected by the inconvenience of seeking medical service under COVID-19. Therefore, more forms of medical services to provide convenience for patients might be effective ways to reverse the declined fertility intention rate in facing COVID-19.

In recent years, an increasing number of women participate in population mobility and most of them are of childbearing age. With the continuous expansion of the population size of this group, their fertility intention will have a great impact on the development of China's population. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the fertility intention and influencing factors on having a second child in floating women. This study employed the data from the 2018 National Migrants Dynamic Monitoring Survey data. A self-designed questionnaire was used to collect information, such as socio-demographics and fertility intention. Descriptive statistical analysis was carried out to obtain the basic characteristics of the main variables. Chi-square and ANOVA tests were used to analyze the differences in the basic characteristics between three groups of women (with intention, without intention and unsure about having a second child). Multinomial logistic regression was employed to analyze influencing factors associated with fertility intention among the floating women. The results of this study indicated that only 13.07% of the floating women had the intention to have a second child, while 67.73% had no intention of having another child. In the multivariate analysis, age, gender and age of the first child, reproductive health education, employment status and medical insurance were found to be significant influencing factors of fertility intention (<i>p</i> < 0.05), while education level and household registration type were not associated with the desire to have a second child (<i>p</i> > 0.05). Overall, after the implementation of the universal two-child policy, floating women of childbearing age have reduced intention to have a second child. Reproductive health education and medical insurance play an important role in ensuring the fertility of floating women. This reminds government departments to consider the above factors comprehensively when formulating the next work plan.

Abstract This study provides an empirical investigation on the impact of fertility intentions on residential relocation behaviours of partnered women during periods of housing price inflation in Australia. The finding suggests that there is a significant impact of fertility intentions on residential mobility. Couples with strong fertility intentions tend to move from one owner‐occupied dwelling to another with more capacity in more affordable local government areas. However, there is substantial heterogeneity around housing market conditions. The translation of fertility intention into relocation was not observed in housing markets with high affordability pressures. This study extends previous research on fertility intention and relocation behaviour by considering how housing market conditions can interfere the translation of fertility intentions into residential moves and the realisation of fertility intentions in births.

Using the childbearing survey data from Hubei Province in March 2022, this article empirically analyzed the status quo of fertility intention and its influencing factors among Chinese married youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. In our analysis, fertility intention was operationalized as the ideal number of children and short-term fertility plan. Statistical results showed that the average ideal number of children stood at 1.652, which was lower than the population replacement level, whilst only 16.4% of married youth had a short-term fertility plan. By utilizing a binary logit regression model and the sheaf coefficient technique, we found that COVID-19-induced factors (i.e., change in the marital relationship during the epidemic, delayed pregnancy preparation due to vaccination) had a more stable effect on fertility intention, especially on short-term fertility planning. Parenting perception characteristics exerted a great impact on the ideal number of children but a relatively small impact on short-term fertility planning. Meanwhile, married youth with stable jobs and a high family income did not necessarily show stronger fertility intentions than those with fewer socioeconomic resources. In addition, the findings also reveal that the relative importance of fertility-influencing factors could vary at different fertile stages, which have valuable implications for population policy in Chinese contexts.

Despite increased emphasis on antiretroviral therapy for HIV infected individuals, issues of fertility and childbearing have received relatively little attention in Ethiopia. This study was conducted to assess socio-demographic, reproductive and HIV related characteristics of fertility intention among women living with HIV in Western Ethiopia. Cross sectional study was conducted from May I to May 26, 2012 using structured questionnaire on a sample of 456 women living with HIV who are on follow up care in anti-retroviral therapy clinics. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to identify significant predictors of fertility desire at 95 CL. Out of 456 respondents 42.1% expressed intention to have children in the future. Educational attainment [AOR (95% CI) = 0.041(0.008-0.220)], partner fertility desire [AOR (95% CI) = 0.012 (0.004-0.034)], number of live children [AOR (95% CI) = 0.344 (0.125-0.950)] and partner sero-status [AOR (95% CI) = 6.578 (4.072-10.881)] were significantly associated with fertility intention. A large proportion of HIV-positive women in the study desired more children in future. Interventions to address this problem include integrated access to contraception methods, and counselling on reproductive health decision-making.

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Despite demonstrable need, men's utilization of sexual and reproductive health services remains low. This low utilization may particularly affect low-income men, given the disproportionate prevalence of unintended pregnancy in low-income populations. Bolstering men's utilization of sexual and reproductive health services requires understanding the services that are most relevant to them. Semistructured interviews about fatherhood, fertility intention, and contraceptive use were conducted with 58 low-income Black and White men in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The interviews were analyzed using content analysis to determine common themes that were most relevant to the men interviewed. The primacy of financial stability emerged as a dominant theme in men's perceptions of fatherhood readiness, successful fathering, and fertility intentions. However, men had children despite feeling financially unprepared, and their contraceptive use was not always congruent with their stated fertility intentions. Some men described financial services as a feature of family planning services that they would find useful. Because of the salience of financial stability in preparation for fatherhood, integrating financial counseling and job skills training into the context of sexual and reproductive health services could be a useful structural intervention to increase men's use of family planning services and to provide them with the support they say they need as fathers.

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Social norms related to fertility may be driving pregnancy desire, timing and contraceptive use, but measurement has lagged. We validated a 10-item injunctive Fertility Norms Scale (FNS) and examined its associations with family planning outcomes among 1021 women and 1020 men in India. FNS captured expectations around pronatalism, childbearing early in marriage and community pressure. We assessed reliability and construct validity through Cronbach's alpha and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) respectively, examining associations with childbearing intention and contraceptive use. FNS demonstrated good reliability (α = 0.65-0.71) and differing sub-constructs by gender. High fertility norm among women was associated with greater likelihood of pregnancy intention [RRR = 2.35 (95% CI: 1.25,4.39); ARRR = 1.53 (95% CI: 0.70,3.30)], lower likelihood of delaying pregnancy [RRR = 0.69 (95% CI: 0.50,0.96); ARRR = 0.72 (95% CI: 0.51,1.02)] and greater ambivalence on delaying pregnancy [RRR = 1.92 (95% CI: 1.18,3.14); ARRR = 1.99 (95% CI: 1.21,3.28)]. Women's higher FNS scores were also associated with higher sterilization [RRR = 2.17 (95% CI: 1.28,3.66); ARRR = 2.24 (95% CI: 1.32,3.83)], but the reverse was noted for men [RRR = 0.61 (95% CI: 0.36,1.04); ARRR = 0.54 (95% CI: 0.32,0.94)]. FNS indicated better predictive value among women compared to men for key reproductive outcomes. This measure may be useful for social norms-focused evaluations in family planning and warrants cross-contextual study.

Abstract Hong Kong is characterized by extremely low fertility, with a total fertility rate of 0.701 in 2022. This paper reports significant declines in the intention to have children among non-parents and in the desire to have more children among parents, based on data from the Family Surveys conducted in Hong Kong in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017, which imply more dramatic demographic changes in the future. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this paper explored individuals’ attitudes toward marriage and having children, family functioning variables indicating subjective norms regarding fertility, and housing status and parenting stress relating to individuals’ control over fertility behavior. The results show that among non-parent respondents, being older and possessing a secondary education were associated with a lower level of fertility intention, whereas being a tenant, having positive attitudes toward marriage and having children, and having higher levels of family mutuality and harmony were associated with a higher level of fertility intention. Among parent respondents, parenting stress significantly inhibited the desire to have more children, regardless of financial matters and family environment. The findings suggest that fertility intentions can be remade over the life course. This paper, based on the TPB framework, can help guide the development and adoption of policies and supportive programs to improve fertility intentions in Hong Kong.

Abstract How trade liberalization affects a country's fertility has been verified by some studies, but little is known about how export trade liberalization impacts individual fertility intention. Using China Health and Nutrition Survey data from 1997 to 2011 and regression analysis, this study finds that a decline in the average external tariff significantly improves the fertility intentions of married women. This conclusion remains robust after overcoming endogeneity problems using an alternative external proxy variable, adopting different average tariff calculation methods, adding other control variables, and considering the son preference. The mechanism test shows that export trade liberalization can affect married women's fertility intentions by affecting family income; moreover, the income effect dominates the substitution and intra‐marital income gap effects. This study provides a new perspective for understanding changes in fertility intention in developing countries. This perspective can promote academic research progress in this field and be of great significance in formulating effective policies to improve fertility intention.

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The struggle women face in balancing work and family roles is a significant factor contributing to the decline in their fertility intentions. Therefore, work-family conflict serves as a crucial determinant influencing women's fertility intentions. This study aims to explore the internal mechanism between work-family conflict and the fertility intentions of Chinese women, using data obtained from 334 questionnaires. Data analysis was conducted using Mplus 8.0. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) There is a negative correlation between work-family conflict and women's fertility intentions. (2) Fertility attitudes play a mediating role in the relationship between work-family conflict and women's fertility intentions. (3) The relationship between work-family conflict and women's fertility intentions is moderated by income class. (4) The relationship between work-family conflict and women's fertility intentions is moderated by women's child-rearing burden. The findings of this study provide a foundation for governments at all levels to formulate population policies.

The literature shows that children born in a large family tend to adopt the&nbsp;same family norm as their parents. This similarity may occur because values, norms, as&nbsp;well as reproductive behaviours are transmitted from parents to their offspring whereby&nbsp;this transmission may determine the fertility rate. For Indonesia, given that the family&nbsp;planning program has successfully halved the fertility rate, yet for the last decade, it&nbsp;remains at 2.6 children per woman. Such phenomenon shows that even though most&nbsp;women have adopted small family norm, but a sizeable share continue to have more&nbsp;than two children. This study aims to examine the effect of mother’s fertility behaviour&nbsp;on woman’s reproductive intention. Ever-married women aged 15-49 years old in 2014&nbsp;who have information about their biological mother are analysed by using data from&nbsp;Indonesian Family Life Survey. Zero-inflated Poisson regression model is used to estimate&nbsp;the transmission effect. The sample is stratified by parity. The results show that mother’s&nbsp;fertility is not associated with childless woman’s fertility intention, but with higher parity&nbsp;woman. Women with many siblings tend to have more children. This finding supports&nbsp;the presence of intergenerational transmission of family norm in Indonesia.&nbsp;

In 2013, the Chinese government implemented a two-child policy to increase the country's fertility rate. However, the persistently low rates necessitated other measures to boost fertility. This study empirically investigated the association between intergenerational support and second-child fertility intention in the Chinese sandwich generation and demonstrated the mediating role of parental burnout and burnout in caring for grandparents. Survey data collected at Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3 included 2939 participants from different regions of China. Before analyzing the data, coarsened exact matching and propensity score matching was conducted to reduce sampling bias. Regression analysis results indicated that intergenerational support has a significant total positive effect on second-child fertility intention. Furthermore, mediation path analysis revealed that parental burnout and burnout in caring for grandparents play significant but opposite directional mediating roles in the association between intergenerational support and second-child fertility intention. Sensitivity analysis using different calipers yielded similar results. These results indicated that second-child fertility intention can be increased among the Chinese sandwich generation with intergenerational support, by mitigating parental burnout. However, intergenerational support did not alleviate burnout in caring for grandparents in the sandwich generation; therefore, formal older adult care policies are required to help the sandwich generation experience lower burnout, while receiving intergenerational support.

Aims: Fertility is an important factor for population growth and its proportion. Regarding the overall decrease in the total fertility rate in Iran and reaching below the replacement rate, this study aimed at determining the effect of the education based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) on women’s fertility intention. Methods &amp; Materials: This interventional study was conducted on 100 pregnant women of reproductive age covered by the Gonabad community health centers. The subjects were selected through two-stage cluster sampling and randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups (n=50 per group). Data were analyzed using SPSS V. 20 and Independent t-test, paired t-test, and Chi-square test. Findings: There was no significant difference between the demographic characteristics of the subjects in the experimental and control groups. Before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the mean score of the theoretical constructs between the two groups. After the intervention, the mean score of attitude (P=0.014), perceived behavioral control (P=0.042), and behavioral intention (P=0.005) were significantly different between the two groups. Conclusion: The results showed that the educational intervention based on TPB could positively affect the fertility intention of single-child women. Hence, it is suggested to use this model in educational programs related to population growth policy and to plan interventions encouraging couples to have another child.

<strong><em>Background & aim:</em></strong> A number of studies have addressed the positive effects of parental gender preferences for children on fertility in Iran. However, new demographic situations have left two questions unanswered: whether parents demonstrate gender preferences for children in a modern low-fertility society and if so whether such a preference is a strong predictor of the probability of having another child.<br /> <strong><em>Methods</em></strong><strong><em>:</em></strong> This cross-sectional survey was conducted on 450 married men and women residing in Tehran, Iran in 2014. The Data collection tool included a self-structured questionnaire entailing a demographic information form, fertility intention, and gender preference-related data. The data were analyzed in SPSS Software (version 24) using cross tabulation estimation and logistic regression.<br /> <strong><em>Results:</em></strong> 22.2% of men and 17.11% of women were reported to be in favor of having daughter, while 12.9% of men and 14% of women preferred son. Moreover, gender preference was found to have no significant effect on fertility intention. However, the women with same-sex children were 3.17 times more likely to desire another child, compared to those who have different sex composition (OR=3.178, P value= 0.000). Furthermore, the men in the age groups of ≤30 and 31-40 desired to have another child, compared to older men.<br /> <strong><em>Conclusion: </em></strong>While a preference for son is rooted in Iranian culture, a new gender preference is emerging with a strong tendency toward having a girl. However, gender preference was not a driving force in the continuation of fertility in the context of low fertility of Tehran.

Economists have often argued that high fertility rates are mainly driven by women's demand for children (and not by family planning efforts) with low levels of unwanted fertility across countries (and hence with little room for family planning efforts to reduce population growth). We study the relationship between wanted fertility and number of children born in a panel of 200 country-years controlling for country fixed effects and global time trends. In general, we find a close relationship between wanted and actual fertility, with one desired child leading to one additional birth. However, our results also indicate that in the last 20 years, the level of unwanted births has stayed at 2 across African countries but has, on average, decreased from 1 to close to 0 in other developing countries. Hence, women in African countries are less able to translate child preferences into birth outcomes than women in other developing countries, and forces other than fertility demand have been important for previous fertility declines in many developing countries. Family planning efforts only partially explain the observed temporal and spatial differences in achieving desired fertility levels.

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<titre>R&#233;sum&#233;</titre>On s&#8217;int&#233;resse dans cet article aux facteurs qui influent sur la formation et l&#8217;&#233;volution au cours de la vie des projets de f&#233;condit&#233;. En particulier, on fait l&#8217;hypoth&#232;se que le nombre souhait&#233; d&#8217;enfants d&#233;clar&#233; par une personne est le reflet de ses exp&#233;riences de vie familiale. &#192; partir des donn&#233;es de l&#8217;enqu&#234;te Intentions de f&#233;condit&#233; effectu&#233;e en France par l&#8217;Ined et l&#8217;Insee en 1998 et d&#8217;entretiens qualitatifs r&#233;alis&#233;s aupr&#232;s de jeunes parents, on observe que les personnes qui n&#8217;ont pas encore d&#8217;enfant forment leurs projets en fonction des seules r&#233;f&#233;rences familiales qu&#8217;elles connaissent, &#224; savoir leur enfance et notamment leur fratrie d&#8217;origine (plus on a de fr&#232;res et s&#339;urs et plus on souhaite avoir d&#8217;enfants, en moyenne), mais que cet effet ne se retrouve pas chez les parents d&#8217;un ou de deux enfants. L&#8217;exp&#233;rience d&#8217;un premier enfant fait prendre conscience des implications concr&#232;tes de la parentalit&#233; (&#233;mergence des difficult&#233;s &#224; concilier vie familiale et activit&#233; professionnelle par exemple) et, d&#232;s lors, la d&#233;termination du nombre souhait&#233; d&#8217;enfants r&#233;pond &#224; d&#8217;autres logiques. N&#233;anmoins, on observe &#224; partir de l&#8217;enqu&#234;te &#201;tude de l&#8217;histoire familiale (Insee, 1999) que la taille de la fratrie d&#8217;origine a in fine un effet sur la descendance finale, r&#233;sultat qui r&#233;interroge du m&#234;me coup la port&#233;e des questions d&#8217;intentions.

Reports have suggested the onset of fertility transition in Nigeria and speculations are rife about the factors driving the observed fertility changes. This study investigates if and how 'desired number of children' influences the observed fertility change in the country, utilizing information collected from twenty-four focus group discussion (FGD) sessions conducted across the country. The results show that people are revising the number of children they are having downward, but the desired number of children remains high. Religion and culture are key drivers of current desired number of children but changing socio-economic factors greatly limit the actual number of children people have. The desired number of children does not play noticeable role in the observed fertility transition in Nigeria, posing significant challenges for policies and programmes that aim to lower desired number of children for sustainable fertility level in the country.

This paper investigates the levels and determinants of desired and actual number of children, and the risk of having more than two children in Ghana and Nigeria using 2013 and 2014 Demographic Health Survey (DHS) conducted in the two countries, respectively. The question is whether the rate of childbearing in sub-Saharan African countries can be slowed down by changes in fertility demand-driven factors such as economic, socio-cultural and family planning programs. Our analysis results showed that these two countries are yet to adopt replacement level policy. Thus, putting every socio-demographic conditions that support fertility in place, these sub-Saharan African countries will continue to increase average childbearing per household, particularly in the case of Nigeria.

To better understand the gap between women’s childbearing aspirations and actual levels of childbearing, this paper investigates the importance of employment, relationship and motherhood transitions for predicting women’s desired number of children. Women born in 1973–78 participating in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health were asked, at three-time points over six years, how many children they would like to have by the age of 35 years. Women who delayed childbearing, did not marry or enter a cohabiting relationship aspired to fewer children, whilst those who married aspired to more children. Notably, the two-way interactions demonstrated that for women without children, and for women who had had their first child between waves, shifting from secure work to being out of the labour force was associated with desiring fewer children. This finding supports the argument that policies which promote women’s attachment to the workforce enable women to more effectively pursue their aspirations for both motherhood and careers. The findings make a new contribution to the field by indicating that life transitions are more important predictors of desired number of children than background and demographic factors that have long been associated with, and used as explanations for, women’s childbearing.

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H. V. Muhsam, Clyde V. Kiser, Social and Psychological Factors Affecting Fertility. XXXII. The Number of Children Desired at the Time of Marriage, The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Jul., 1956), pp. 287-312

Findings of the present study were explained in the light of an evolutionary approach on reproductive psychology. Those with high perfectionistic cognitions desire a smaller number of children and more religious women desire a larger number of children.

<title>Abstract</title> Background: Desired family size, the number of children wanted in one’s lifetime, is one of the major factors influencing the population dynamics. Knowledge of factors influencing the desired family size is crucial in regulating the population growth. This study assesses the desired family size and its determinants among Ethiopian women. Methods: The study was based on the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) data. A total of 13,941 women with complete information were considered in the study. Count regression models, a family of generalized linear models, were used to identify determinant factors for the desired number of children among women in Ethiopia. Results: Results showed that the average number of children per women was 4.5. The highest average was recorded in Somali region (10.58) and the lowest in Addis Ababa city administration (3.56). The random intercept negative binomial regression model was found to be the most appropriate model for the data. Women’s age, household head, contraception using, wealth index, women’s education, religion, marital status, husband’s work, family size and age at first marriage were significantly associated with the desired number of children by women at reproductive age. The study also showed that there was significant regional variation in desired number of children among Ethiopian women. Conclusions: Variables such as women’s age and family size were positively associated with the desired number of children by women at reproductive age while age at first marriage, contraception using, wealth index and women’s education were negatively associated with the desired number of children by women. Women who attained higher level of education preferred small family size compared to women with no formal education. Desire for children was high among mothers from rural areas, women in the poorest economic level and woman having no work. Keywords: Desired number of children, statistical weight, EDHS, Count regression models, multilevel analysis.

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<strong>Background:</strong> Desired number of children is one of the main indexes showing the fertility preferences of couples. This issue is currently more important as Iranian policy makers are revising population policies to improve fertility rate. <strong>Objectives:</strong> As a result, the main goal of this study was to investigate factors influencing the number of desired children among married women in the reproductive age. A theoretical framework was constructed based on demographic transition theory, demand-supply theory and diffusion theory. <strong>Methods:</strong> This study was a quantitative research and its research technique was survey. The population of the study included all married women at the reproductive age (15-49), who were living in Shiraz County (Shiraz city and surrounding rural areas). Data was collected by interviews with 626 women, who were selected by multi cluster sampling and purposive sampling during year 2014. Data was analyzed by the SPSS (version 22) software. <strong>Results:</strong> The findings showed that the desired number of children both in Shiraz city and its surrounding rural areas was exactly below the replacement rate. In addition, findings of this study demonstrated that the desired number of children as a dependent variable is affected by a set of socioeconomic and cultural factors. Results have revealed that the main predictors are couple agreement on the number of children, respondents’ income, son preference, respondents’ authority and ethnicity. <strong>Conclusions:</strong> Overall, the variables considered in the research model explained only 32.7% of change in the dependent variable. This means that 67.3% of change in the number of desired children is related to factors that are not included in the research model. Moreover, most of the women in Shiraz County desired to have a small family size and this fact can result in further decline of fertility rates in the future because couples respect their desires in fertility. As a result, it is recommender for policy makers to pay more attention to factors influencing the desired number of children.

This time of social change that we all live in, goes along with the population natural change as well. The vital statistics data regularly published by the State Statistical Office are really good pointers to the changes that have taken place in the marital and reproductive behavior of the population in the country. They are also the basis for calculating the main population indicators and indexes. Unfortunately, they don`t provide data related to the attitudes towards marriage and the desired number of children, family planning, the reasons that have caused these changes nor analysis of the changes that occurred as a result of the few population policy measures implemented so far. The study in the paper is based on the analyzes of the results from the conducted anonymous survey "Attitudes towards marriage and the desired number of children", with more than 3,000 respondents of reproductive age in North Macedonia, i.e. women aged 15-49, and men aged 15-64. The results from the survey showed significant differences between the answers of women and men, and they also differed depending on the age of the respondents. Therefore, the study recommends several effective institutional strategies and population policy measures in order to overcome the challenges related to population natural change and to reduce the contemporary regional differences in population development.

SOME 30 COUNTRIES today have fertility rates below 1.5 births per woman.The governments of each of these countries have reported to the United Nations that they consider this rate to be "too low" (United Nations 2004).When fertility is moderately below replacement level, the size of subsequent generations falls only slowly and, if considered necessary, there is an opportunity to supplement the generation size with migration.When fertility remains very low, however, the generation size falls rapidly and massive migration would be required to offset the decline (United Nations 2000).Hence, we can think in terms of a "safety zone" for low fertility.Population dynamics tends to confirm the view of governments that the "safety zone" lies above 1.5 births per woman.There is evidence also that very low fertility, on average, is counter to the preferences of individuals experiencing it (van Peer 2002; d'Addio and d'Ercole 2005).While individual-level economic analysis attributes meaning only to revealed preferences, actual fertility behavior (a revealed preference) is achieved within a given social-institutional setting.In expressing higher "ideal preferences" on average, women are effectively commenting upon the nature of the social-institutional setting in which they consider having children.They are saying that, in a different institutional setting, they believe they would have had more children.My central argument in this article is that institutional settings more conducive to having children are both desirable and achievable.People have many desires that are not satisfied.Why be concerned about this particular unrealized ideal?I shall argue that benefits accrue both to the individuals concerned and to the society as a whole if fertility ideals can come closer to being fulfilled.There are severe questions about the nature of social organization if citizens fail to have the number of children they would prefer to have when that number is as low as one, two, or three children.The argument is a subtle one because the societies under discussion do not remove the right to have children as some societies remove other personal freedoms.Rather, the argument I make is that ideals go unre-

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Paid employment and access to and control over resources are factors which, if improved upon, could significantly reduce the ideal number of children. By taking necessary steps, mass media can be used much more adequately to reduce ideal number of children in FSSA countries. In addition, the desire for many children could also be due to their participation in income-generating activities to improve the household's socio-economic status. The findings suggests that improvement of women's ability to have the desired number of children is a big challenge to which policy makers must pay careful attention.

The relationship between desired and achieved fertility may be misspecified by excluding husbands' fertility desires or by confounding effects of shared desires with the resolution of conflicting desires. Using couple data from the classic Princeton Fertility Surveys, we find relatively large husband effects on fertility outcomes as well as unique effects of spousal disagreement. Wives and husbands were equally likely to achieve fertility desires, and disagreeing couples experienced fertility rates midway between couples who wanted the same smaller or larger number of children. These conditions do not hold, however, when we include willingness to delay births for economic mobility as part of the measure of fertility desires. Among couples who both wanted a third child, only husbands' willingness to delay births had significant negative effects on birth rates.

All OECD governments want to give parents more choice in their work and family decisions. This book looks at the different ways in which governments support families. It seeks to provide answers to questions like: Is spending on family benefits going up, and how does it vary by the age of the child? Has the crisis affected public support for families? What is the best way of helping adults to have the number of children they desire? What are the effects of parental leave programmes on female labour supply and on child well-being? Are childcare costs a barrier to parental employment and can flexible workplace options help? What is the best time for mothers to go back to work after childbirth? And what are the best policies to reduce poverty among sole parents?

In this paper we present a methodology for studying the desired number of additional children. Our methodology involves a generalization of our earlier work. and an application of the estimator proposed by Heckman and the two-stage simultaneous Tobit estimator proposed by Nelson and Olson.

Background & aim: In the last three decades, fertility has undergone a significant decrease in Iran. It seems that women's employment could affect this declining trend. It might also affect the quality of marital relationship as well as fertility motivations. Given the dearth of research in this topic, this study designed to measure the relationship between the current and desired number of children with quality of marital relationships and fertility motivations among employed women and their husbands in Mashhad, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 270 employed women and their husbands in 2018 who were selected through randomized cluster sampling technique. The data were collected through a demographic as well as Miller’s marital relationship quality and fertility motivations (1995) questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 24), using Spearman, analysis of variance, least significant difference (LSD), Kruskal-Wallis, and regression analysis tests. Results: Current number of children had a positive relationship with positive fertility motivations in women (P=0.002) and marriage duration (p <0.001). Desired number of children also had a positive relationship with quality of marital relationship (P=0.008) and positive fertility motivations in employed women and their husbands (P=0.001). Conclusion: As the findings indicated, the current number of children and positive fertility motivations was significantly associated with marital relationships quality and positive fertility motivations in women and their husbands. Therefore, a plan should be developed for improving marital relationships quality and positive fertility motivations in employed women and their spouses.

A number of studies have explored motives for parenthood in the Western industrialized world. These studies have documented that children are mostly desired for reasons relating to happiness and personal well-being. To date, limited data pertaining to parenthood motives in African countries exist. Insight into the value of children can, however, be derived from studies on infertility, as the negative repercussions of involuntary childlessness reflect the value of children to parents and the community. According to these studies children secure conjugal ties, offer social security, assist with labour, confer social status, secure rights of property and inheritance, provide continuity through re-incarnation and maintaining the family lineage, and satisfy emotional needs. Parenthood therefore appears to have more and, arguably, deeper roots in African communities when compared to industrialized countries.

Objective: To investigate the fertility status and desire of married migrants in Beijing,Shanghai and Chengdu,so as to provide groundwork for the future services.Methods: The migrants centralized in factories,building sites and service/entertainment places were recruited in this study.The questionnaire survey including demography characteristics,floating characteristics,reproductive status and fertility desire was conducted by trained investigators.Results: Totally,4050 married migrants were investigated.The median of children number were 1(1 to 2),and the median of expected children number were 2(1 to 2).The proportions of migrants hoping one child were 47.22%,61.13%,41.96%,and 30.38% in those age-groups of 20,20-29,30-39,and 40 or higher,respectively.The multi-logistic analysis found that the desired children number in the group of 40 or higher years was higher than that in the 20 age-group(OR=1.98,95%CI: 1.04-3.77).Subjects with the no-agriculture registered permanent residence wanted to have fewer children(OR=0.62,95%CI: 0.52-0.74),when compared with those agriculture registered permanent residence.Moreover,the higher education level,the higher average month income of family they had,the fewer desired children they wanted.The fertility desires of migrants working in the different workplaces were also different.Conclusions: The average number of desired children of migrants worked in Beijing,Shanghai and Chengdu was a little bit higher than that they had,but most of migrants did not expect more than 3 children.Migrants who had higher age,lower education and lower income want to have more desired children.

Purpose: This study is a descriptive survey research on factors related to fertility intention of nurses who work in general hospitals, by applying the Theory of Planned Behavior(TPB). Method: The research subjects are 674 nurses at the peak fertility age of 20-39 years old, who work in 4 general hospitals located in Seoul and Gyeonggi province. Result: The mean score of subjects' fertility intention is 3.69 in 5-point scale. The fertility intention was significantly influenced by perceived behavioral control and subjective norm. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that the fertility intention of the nurses in general hospitals was influenced by the TPB variables such as the attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm. Thus, a comprehensive approach strategy is needed considering these factors.

This study was conducted to investigate the factors influencing the fertility intentions of female university students, based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The data were collected by self-administered questionnaires that asked about general characteristics and TPB variables regarding fertility intention from 548 female university students. Three constructs of the TPB (attitudes, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control) regarding fertility correlate with fertility intentions. Multiple regression analysis indicated that all three constructs of the TPB and the intention of future marriage could predict fertility intentions. Based on the results, the TPB is useful to explain fertility intentions and the data from this study can be used as fundamental information to improve low birth rates.

The prevailing strong intention for high fertility in Ethiopia delays efforts to quickly decrease fertility and calls for implementation of multifaceted strategies that maintain high fertility intention rates. Accordingly, demographic and socio-physiological factors were found to affect women's intention to have children. Awareness of these influencing factors is crucial for designing fertility programs and policies tailored to demographics strategies. Specifically, these strategies should be sufficiently diverse to create a positive social norm toward FP use, which can lead to information sharing, reduced stigma, and community support that can play significant importance in shaping individuals' fertility intention and reproductive behaviors.

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Aims: Childbearing is a value in Islamic Iranian culture. Due to the decrease in the total fertility rate in Iran during the three decades, following the change in population policies in 1990-2010, having one child has become a common phenomenon in the country. This study aimed to determine the effect of education on childbearing intention in one-child women based on the theory of planned behavior. Materials & Methods: In this interventional study in Farooj in 2018, 90 one-child women were randomly selected and assigned into intervention and control. Before the intervention, the subjects were surveyed using demographic information, planned behavior theory, and Miller's fertility motivation questionnaires. Then, based on the educational needs, four 60-minutes training sessions were provided to the intervention group for two months, and the control group did not receive training. The questionnaires were filled out by the intervention and control groups immediately and three months after training. Data were analyzed using SPSS 24 software through a significance level of 0.05. Findings: There was no significant difference between the two groups before the intervention regarding the mean score of perceived behavioral control, behavioral intention, positive motivation, and negative motivation towards childbearing intention and demographic variables (p>0.05). There were no significant differences in attitude scores, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on the childbearing intention in one-child women in both intervention and control groups (p>0.05). Conclusion: Social, cultural, religious, and especially economic conditions of the society are effective in improving the attitude of childbearing, which should be considered along with educational interventions to achieve better results from education.

Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB ) as a framework this paper investigates the role of uncertainty in fertility intentions in order to improve prediction of fertility outcomes. Using two waves of Italian data from GGS, it shows the existence of a clear relationship between the stability of intention to have a child and realization of intention: uncertainty in a stated intention results in significantly lower realization of that intention. In addition, the results show that beliefs that having a child will improve life satisfaction and partner relationship have a positive effect on the stability of intentions to have a child.

Considering China is facing a precipitous decline in its population, there is an emerging trend of developing baby robots to encourage people's willingness to become "parents". Based on the decomposed theory of planned behavior and the theory of uncanny valley, this study empirically investigated whether a baby robot could perform as a prominent antecedent of fertility intention in China, and how this relates to its visual appearance. Consistent with prior research, the current study used a between-subjects design to show (1) a baby robot could significantly improve people's fertility attitude through temporal visual stimulation; (2) fertility attitude, subjective norms from peers, and perceived behavioral control of finance could significantly contribute to fertility intention. Theoretical contributions and implications are discussed in this study.

Introduction: Rapid decline of the total fertility rate in Iran in recent decades has caused serious demographic challenges to the country. One important reason for this decrease is single-child behavior adopted by Iranian families. Objective: The present study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of education based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) on childbearing intention in single-child women. Materials and Methods: This randomized field trial with the pretest-posttest design was done on 72 single-child women presenting to health centers in Mashhad City, Iran, in the intervention (37 persons) and control (35 persons) groups from August 2019 to February 2020. Research tools included a demographic and obstetric questionnaire and a researcher-made childbearing intention questionnaire based on TPB. The intervention group received three 110-min sessions of education, which was based on TPB. The control group received routine health center care. The study data were analyzed by using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk, Independent t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Freidman test, post hoc tests of Bonferroni and Dunn, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient, and the Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) model. Results: The mean±SD age of the participants were 32.6±4.7 and 32.9±4.7 years in the intervention and control groups, respectively, and most of the women had university-level education in both groups. Changes in childbearing intention from the pre-intervention stage were significantly higher in the intervention group than the control group immediately (P=0.001) and then one month after the intervention (P=0.001). The results of the GEE model showed that the childbearing intention was significantly higher in the intervention group (β=0.68, 95% CI; 0.449-0.911, P=0.001,), and there was a significant positive relationship between attitude and childbearing (β=0.023, 95% CI; 0.013-0.033, P=0.001). Conclusion: Education based on the theory of planned behavior increased childbearing intention in single-child women in this study, so this educational program is advised for promoting childbearing.

To a greater extent than in the past, union formation is currently considered an issue that is mainly the concern of the partners in the relationship (Shorter, 1977). Although the opinions of parents and friends still do matter, in the end the partners themselves decide whether they want to live together and, if so, whether they want to get married or not. This shift is said to be the result of the progressing individualization in industrialized societies (Lesthaeghe & Surkyn, 1988). Due to this, individuals are less dependent than in the past on customs and norms prevailing in their social environment, and can decide fairly autonomously on personal life choices. If partners are fairly autonomous in making their union formation decisions, one would expect a high degree of correspondence between the intentions of young adults regarding union formation and their actual behavior. However, hardly any research has been conducted on this issue. Therefore, the first question to be dealt with here concerns the extent to which the intentions of young adults regarding the timing of union formation and regarding the type of union chosen are actually realized. There is a large literature on social factors influencing the timing of marriage (e.g., Blossfeld & Huinink, 1991; Oppenheimer, 1988). However, empirical research on factors influencing the choice between unmarried cohabitation and marriage is much more limited (Hoem, 1986; Liefbroer, 1991a; Rao, 1990; Thornton, 1991). Social-psychological models linking attitudes and behavior, such as Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) theory of reasoned action, stress that the influence of such social factors is always mediated by the behavioral intentions of people. Applying this to the issue of union formation choice, one might expect that union formation intentions mediate the impact of social factors on union formation behavior. Our second aim is to test this hypothesis. In doing so, we will not include the full range of possible social factors, but concentrate on the impact of a number of life course related factors. Two main concepts from life course sociology will be used to structure the discussion, namely developmental readiness and parallel careers. HYPOTHESES RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UNION FORMATION INTENTIONS AND BEHAVIOR The relationship between attitudes and intentions of individuals on the one hand, and their behavior on the other hand, has been extensively studied, mainly within social psychology. Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) emphasize that, in order to predict future behavior, it is better to inquire about concrete intentions than about general attitudes and values underlying behavior. Behavioral intentions appear to be good predictors of behavior, particularly if it concerns relatively 'simple' behavior that is to be realized soon, and of which the realization is fully under the individual's control. If a long period of time elapses between determining the behavioral intention and the actual behavior, or if the behavior is partly outside the individual's control, it appears necessary to pay more attention to the social context (Ajzen & Madden, 1986; de Jong Gierveld & Liefbroer, 1988; Liska, 1984). Numerous demographic applications of Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) model of reasoned behavior can be found. However, most of these applications are related to having children (e.g., Bracher & Santow, 1991). Applications to the union formation process are scarce. The Netherlands Fertility Survey, conducted by the Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics (Beets, 1987; Van de Giessen, 1986), forms an exception to this rule. In 1982, females who were not living with a partner were asked about their future union formation plans. During reinterviews in 1985, the majority of the women were found to have acted in accordance with their stated expectations. Sixty-nine percent of those who had planned to get married within 3 years had actually done so, while this percentage was only 18 among those women who had not intended to get married. …

COVID-19 has caused unprecedented impact on the lives of Australians, with significant influence on the mental health and well-being of adults. Initial estimates predict that there will be a decline in birth rates from 1.7 to 1.59 children per woman in Australia over the course of 2021. This study aimed to explore change in fertility intentions as a result of COVID-19 in Australian young adults. Sixty-seven adults (82% women) between the ages of 18–35 years participated in the online survey. The study collected socio-demographic data including relationship status, employment, education, income, and gender as well as three measures of wellbeing including hopelessness, anxiety, and coping. Results of the study indicated that employment status is a significant indicator of change in fertility intention. There was a strong effect for hopelessness, indicating that increased hope for the future is associated with a change in fertility intention. Anxiety and coping did not appear to significantly influence change. The results of this study indicate that the immediate impact of COVID-19 on wellbeing does not cause people to change fertility intention, however, hope for the future has a significant influence. Through the lens of the Theory of Planned Behavior, this may be because people evaluate the consequences of their actions based on predictions of the future, and therefore hope for the future most significantly impacts their attitudes toward having children. Future research should investigate how supporting the wellbeing of young adults can influence choice in fertility intention.

The postponement of first births has implications on the ability of women to conceive and parents to produce additional offspring. Massive postponement is attributed to the clash between the optimal biological period for women to have children with obtaining additional education and building a career. A growing body of literature shows that female employment and childrearing can be combined when the reduction in work-family conflict is facilitated by policy intervention.

This research is written within the framework of the European Commission project “Reproductive decision-making in a macro-micro perspective” (REPRO). It describes work completed within REPRO Work Package 3 on micro-level modelling of social psychological influences on reproductive decision making by individuals, specifically, the formation of intention to have a first or second child. The report introduces the macro level context within which the work was conducted and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the social psychological model of human behaviour that guided the work, linking the TPB to other work in demography on psychological influences on the formation of intention to have a child. After identifying parity and age as the contexts across which intention to have a child differ most, structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to permit comparisons of both differences in the relevance of individual attitudinal beliefs, normative referents and control factors in eight countries (Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy and Romania), and differences in the relative influence of attitudes, perceived norms and perceived behavioural control on the intentions of females aged 25 to 34 year old to have their first or second child in these countries. A comparison of the relative influence of attitudes, norms and perceived control among childless Bulgarian females under 25 and between 25 to 34 years old demonstrates how influences on fertility decision making differ by age. Exploration of the potential of three macro level contexts (wealth, employment stability and family- and child-friendly policy) to explain differences in intention to have a second child showed that policy context provided a more satisfactory explanation overall than national wealth or employment stability, although employment stability provided an explanation of differences in material control and none of these contexts adequately explained the observed patterns of the country level differences in influences on intention to have a second child. The formation of intention to have a child appears to differ in quite complex ways across different individual and national contexts. An implication for development of policy to enable and encourage Europeans to have more children is that policies may need to be more closely targeted to the needs of individuals in quite specific individual contexts. This work has taken some initial steps toward uncovering the complexity, but more needs to be done and the report includes some considerations about directions for future research.

Objective (s): The Islamic Republic of Iran has experienced a dramatic decrease in fertility rates in the past three decades. Despite extensive research in the field of demography and fertility, many previous studies have been conducted based on quantitative methods and frequently criticized especially in the micro level. Since the qualitative research will provide a much deeper understanding of the decision-making processes, this study was conducted to understand and properly describe the decision-making process of childbearing in Kermanshah city.Methods: Adopting the grounded theory approach, this study was started with a purposive sampling and continued with theoretical sampling with maximum variation in terms of age, gender and number of children. In-depth interviews were carried out with 20 married women and 14 married men. The constant comparative method was used to analyze the data.Results: Individuals perceived certain needs in their lives. If a person believed that childbearing would reduce or fulfill these needs, then the childbearing demand will develop. Attitude to childbearing consequences and perceived norms were reasons for perceived childbearing needs. When the childbearing need was formed, a person plans to have or not have a child based on perception of capability in controlling current life conditions and in raising the child. If the person perceived that he/she could control the above conditions, “childbearing intention” was developed and if he/she considered the degree of control to be inappropriate, he/she would employ the strategy of childbearing avoidance and display the appropriate behavior according to this decision-making process. Conclusion: We found that child bearing is not an accidental phenomenon; rather, it is a rational choice. The childbearing decision-making is a process on the basis of satisfying some needs.

The results obtained from this study showed that parenting education based on the theory of planned behavior generally improved couples' intention to have children, abstract norms, and also the intention to have children later, but it had no effect on the attitude of couples toward having children and controlling their perceived behavior in having children. It seems that couples having only one child are rooted in environmental conditions, such as the economic and social status of society, rather than being under the control and desire of the couple. Therefore, other environmental conditions should also be taken into consideration in fertility promotion policies. Adaptation and implementation of theory of planned behavior (TPB)-based intervention by health policymakers and healthcare providers achieve a better understanding of childbearing.

Objective: To discuss issues and concerns in the application of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to the decision to have a child. Methods: We review the basic structure of the TPB, its principles, and its assumptions as they apply to fertility decisions. Among other issues we consider attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of control as antecedents to the decision to have a child; the expectancy-value model for understanding the formation of these antecedents; and the role of background factors, such as institutional policies, societal values, and personal characteristics. We illustrate key elements of the TPB using results from a multinational research project and end by considering a number of open questions for TPB-guided fertility research. Conclusions: We conclude that the TPB can usefully be employed to further our understanding of fertility decisions. By examining behavioral, normative, and control beliefs about having a child we can identify important considerations that influence this decision. The information obtained can also guide adoption of policies or interventions designed to encourage (or discourage) couples to have more children.

Highlighting the problems posed by a "unitary" conceptualization of the household, a number of economists have in recent years proposed alternative models. These models, especially those embodying the bargaining approach, provide a useful framework for analyzing gender relations and throw some light on how gender asymmetries are constructed and contested. At the same time, the models have paid inadequate or no attention to some critical aspects of intrahousehold gender dynamics, such as: what factors (especially qualitative ones) affect bargaining power? What is the role of social norms and social perceptions in the bargaining process and how might these factors themselves be bargained over? Are women less motivated than men by self-interest and might this affect bargaining outcomes? Most discussions on bargaining also say little about gender relations beyond the household, and about the links between extrahousehold and intrahousehold bargaining power. This paper spells out the nature of these complexities and their importance in determining the outcomes of intrahousehold dynamics. It also extends the bargaining approach beyond the household to the interlinked arenas of the market, the community, and the State.

Since the 1960s there has been a dramatic drop in birth rates across Europe, and fertility below replacement levels has captured the attention of researchers, policymakers, and society at large. In research this is reflected by analysis on possible reasons for the fertility decline, including studies of fertility intentions and subsequent outcomes. Fertility intentions are an essential factor to understand changing fertility rates at macro level as well as individual family transitions. Studies suggest that not all fertility intentions are realized (Schoen et al. 1999; Voas 2003) and expected number of children is generally higher than completed number of children (Noack &amp;amp; Østby 2000). One of the most prominent social psychological models used to explain or predict behaviors is the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). According to this theory the intention is not only a direct pre-condition to the behavior, but actually mediates between a set of explanatory factors and the possible outcome (Ajzen 2005). To understand the gap between expressed intentions and actual births the timing of fertility intentions seems relevant. The TPB states that the longer the time interval between forming an intention and performing the actual behavior, the more likely it is that intentions change in response to other events (Fishbein &amp;amp; Ajzen 2010). Consequently, people might be less determined to realize their fertility

After briefly reviewing different approaches in the social and behavioral sciences to conceptualize the reasons that humans become motivated to bear children, I present a theoretical framework that incorporates many elements of these approaches. The framework is based on a four-step psychological sequence: the formation of traits, the activation of traits into desires, the translation of desires into intentions, and the implementation of intentions in the form of behavior. I use data from 401 married couples to develop regression models of the two middle steps of this sequence that indicate how childbearing motivational traits lead to childbearing desires and how the latter lead to childbearing intentions. I also develop a regression model that indicates how childbearing motivation affects an individual's perception of his or her spouse's childbearing desires.

Childbearing motivation may be conceptualized as based upon psychological traits and shaped by experiences during childhood, adolescence, and early adult life. This paper explores what those traits and developmental experiences are. Two measures of childbearing motivation, one positive and the other negative, are described. Using a sample of 362 married men and 354 married women, the paper systematically examines the factors associated with these measures. In addition to a set of basic personality traits, these factors include parental characteristics, teenage experiences, and a number of variables from young adult behavior domains such as marriage, education, work, religion, and parental relationships. Stepwise multiple regression analyses lead to two final constrained, simultaneous-equation regression models. These models indicate the importance of both personality traits and diverse life-cycle experiences in the development of childbearing motivation, the differential gender distribution of predictors, and the different experiential antecedents of positive and negative motivation.

Teenagers’ motivations and desires related to parenthood are important for their reproductive behavior in their teens and also constitute the origin of their future childbearing choices. The study investigates which perceived consequences of childbearing are the strongest predictors of desire to have children in the future, among late teens, at the onset of emerging adulthood. In a sample of 1803 Polish men and women (ages 18–20), their desire for children can be explained by their perceptions of the drawbacks of child care and the emotional values of children, mostly related to infancy. For men, the satisfaction of raising a child was also important. For women, traditional and instrumental values of children play a significant role, suggesting some normative influences. The relationship between fears related to children’s future well-being and childbearing desire was more complex, moderated by other perceived costs of children. Based on a small follow-up study (n = 107), we provided the first tentative evidence on the stability of childbearing motivations and desires over the transition to adulthood.

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Despite a growing literature assessing pregnancy desires among HIV-infected women enrolled in clinical care, little attention has been paid to HIV-infected youth for whom pregnancy is a very relevant issue. In urban areas with high rates of teen pregnancy and HIV infection, further understanding of childbearing motivations and relationship dynamics influencing pregnancy desires among female youth is needed. This study compares the childbearing motivations, pregnancy desires, and perceived partner desire for a pregnancy among predominately African-American HIV-infected (n=46) and HIV-uninfected (n=355) female youth (15-24 years). An HIV-infected status was not significantly associated with childbearing motivations or the desire for a future pregnancy, p>0.10. HIV-infection was, however, associated with an increased likelihood to perceive that one's partner would have a positive response to a pregnancy (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 3.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2-10.4, p=0.02) compared to uninfected peers. While race was not associated with participants' own desire for a child, white youth were significantly less likely to perceive a positive partner response to becoming pregnant than their African-American peers (aOR 0.23, 95% CI 0.09-0.56, p=0.001). These data suggest that the desire for childbearing is not diminished by HIV infection among urban female youth, highlighting the need for routine, provider-initiated discussions about childbearing with urban youth to minimized unintended pregnancies and HIV transmission.

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Millions of children who were born during the first decade after the Islamic revolution in Iran are now reaching the age of marriage and childbearing. Short spacing between marriage and the birth of the first child has the potential to cause an excessive and costly increase in the growth of population in Iran. Research into the motivations for the birth of first child among newly married couples can create a knowledge base that will enable health centres to help these couples make better decisions about the timing of their first pregnancy. Using a consecutive sampling technique and administering Miller's Childbearing Questionnaire, data were gathered regarding the childbearing motivations and desires of 300 couples who had been referred to the Shiraz Health Center for premarital counselling. The Childbearing Questionnaire, with some minor modifications, was found to be a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the childbearing motivations of newly married couples of Shiraz County, Fars Province, Iran. The utility of these findings for counselling in health centres is discussed. Based on the results, a longitudinal study is being designed that will allow the development of models for predicting the time of first pregnancy after marriage.

Book reviewed in this article: Childbearing motivations involve a constellation of socially defined and idiosyncratic meanings, some of which may not be recognized by the individual. A systematic delineation of the multiplicity of meanings related to childbearing provides a framework for investigating motivational conflicts that may thwart childbearing plans and contribute to problems of conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and childrearing.

Relationships between positive and negative childbearing motivations and an abortion attitude index are examined among men and women from 401 married couples--half of whom had one child and half of whom were childless. A multivariate model tests for differences in these relationships, as well as in the association of the attitude index with personality traits, personal value systems and age, across both gender and parity groups. The results indicate that three of the four measures of negative childbearing motivation and one of the five measures of positive childbearing motivation are associated with a more accepting attitude toward abortion. These relationships are independent of the effects of personality, personal values and age, and are the same for both males and females and for respondents with no children and one child.

To have a child is among individuals' most important and meaningful decisions, with far-reaching implications. Despite evidence linking this decision to a wide variety of consequences, little is known about what motivates people to have children, and even less so about the long-term effects of different childbearing motivations on parenting and child adjustment. This study took a self-determination theory (SDT) perspective, examining how prenatal maternal autonomous and controlled childbearing motivations are related to child behavior problems through parenting styles. The rationale was that prenatal autonomous (sense of volition and self-fulfillment) and controlled (feeling pressured) childbearing motivations would shape later parental styles (autonomy-supportive vs. controlling, respectively) and, consequently, child adjustment. Over a period of 2 years beginning at pregnancy, 326 Israeli mothers reported their prenatal childbearing motivations, as well as parental styles and child behavior problems 20 months postpartum. Results of a path analysis revealed that prenatal autonomous childbearing motivation predicted autonomy-supportive parenting, yet the latter was not associated with children's behavior problems. Prenatal controlled motivation predicted controlling parenting, which, in turn, predicted children's internalizing and externalizing problems. No direct effects of childbearing motivation on children's behavior problems are observed, suggesting that childbearing motivation is a distal antecedent operating through more proximal factors such as parenting style. Findings were robust to children's temperamental tendencies and sociodemographic risk factors such as maternal age, high-risk pregnancy, and preterm birth. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for the discourse on motivations underlying the childbearing decision and their effects on parenting and child adjustment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Relatively little is known about the motivational antecedents to the use of assisted reproductive technology (ART). In this paper we measure the fertility motivations of infertile couples who are considering the use of ART, using an established instrument, the Childbearing Questionnaire (CBQ). Our sample consists of 214 men and 216 women who were interviewed at home after an initial screening for ART but before making a final decision. We conducted two sets of analyses with the obtained data. In one set, we compared the scores on scales and subscales of the CBQ for the males and females in our sample with the scores for males and females from a comparable normative sample. For these analyses we first examined sample and gender differences with a four-group analysis of variance. We then conducted a series of linear models that included background characteristics as covariates and interactions between sample, gender, and age and between those three variables and the background characteristics. The results showed the expected higher positive and lower negative motivations in the ART sample and a significant effect on positive motivations of the interaction between sample and age. In the second set of analyses, we developed several new subscales relevant to facets of the desire for a child that appear to be important in ART decision-making. These facets include the desire to be genetically related to the child and the desire to experience pregnancy and childbirth. A third facet, the desire for parenthood, is already well covered by the existing subscales. The results showed the new subscales to have satisfactory reliability and validity. The results also showed that the original and new subscales predicted the three facets of the desire for a child in a multivariate context. We conclude with a general discussion of the way our findings relate both to ART decision-making and to further research on the motivations that drive it.

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Background: Childbearing is considered to be one of the main purposes of marriage in Iranian culture.  The aim of this study was to assess relationships among age of marriage, religious and educational levels, participation of couples in childbearing and finical status with childbearing motivation using structural equation model. Materials and Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of previous data; 450 young couples attending four healthcare centers of Mashhad, Iran, included in this study. Sampling method was convenience sampling. Structural equation modeling was performed using AMOS version 19.0. Model was tested using maximum likelihood. Goodness of fit of the model was evaluated based on the Chi-square to degree of freedom ratio (χ2/df), goodness-of-fit index (GFI), comparative fit index (CFI), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). Results: Mean age for women and men were 22.16±4.84 and 26.02±4.6 year-old, respectively. The result of our study showed that suggested childbearing motivation model was well fit with data (GFI=0.96; CFI=0.96; RMSEA=0.063, and χ2/df=4.51). Marriage age and educational level significantly negatively associated with childbearing motivation, respectively (standardized β =-0.082, p=0.018), and (standardized β= -0.222 and p<0.001). Religious level was positively significantly associated with positive motivation (standardized β =0.226 and p<0.001). Participation of couples in childbearing had a significantly strong positive motivation (standardized β=0.56 and p<0.001). The R-squared value for childbearing motivation model was 0.34. Conclusion: The findings indicated that the couple’s childbearing motivations were influenced by educational level, participation of couples in childbearing, marriage age and religious level.

Despite disproportionate health outcome disparities experienced by Black women, reproductive coercion (RC), a range of behaviors to promote unwanted pregnancy and childbearing motivations among poor young Black men are underexamined in current empirical literature. We aimed to describe perceptions of RC behaviors and childbearing motivations among poor young Black men in Baltimore City. We recruited a convenience sample of young Black men aged 18 to 25 (<i>N</i> = 25). Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and demographic surveys. Thematic analysis was guided by Miller's Traits-Desires-Intentions-Behaviors (TDIB) framework. According to survey data (<i>N</i> = 23), mean age was 22 (2.1). Majority of participants reported sexual relationships with one person (74%; <i>n</i> = 17), almost half (48%; <i>n</i> = 12) were biological fathers, and six (26%) participants reported using RC toward an intimate partner; three (13%) reported experiencing RC behaviors from a female partner. According to qualitative interviews (<i>N</i> = 25), participants described perceived women-partner motivations for RC as entrapment. Childbearing motivations were influenced by (a) legacies and bonding and (b) escaping/correcting the past. Childbearing desires included (a) love feelings and intimacy and (b) good father. Childbearing intentions included (a) resistance to medical interventions and (b) preparation. Perceptions of RC and childbearing motivations reflected desires from participants to fulfill cultural expectations for conventional masculinity and enhance personal dreams for fatherhood. Although some perceptions and behavior patterns aligned with previous studies, RC was relatively rare in this sample. Findings demonstrated nuanced antithesis to stereotypical notions of young Black men and fatherhood. Provision of reproductive care for young men and their sexual partners should include discussions about RC, pregnancy motivations, and healthy sexual communication strategies.

Childbearing motivations affect the fertility preferences in reproductive-age women but do not appear to have any influence on the actual child number. Furthermore, the interactional variables affect the ideal and actual child number.

This research investigates the relation between climate anxiety, threat perceptions for future generations, and childbearing motivations in childless emerging adults. Using a sample of 1211 Swiss college students aged 18–25, the study explores if threat perceptions mediate the relationship between climate anxiety and childbearing motivations. Results from structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that climate anxiety significantly predicted greater perceptions of threat, which in turn related to less positive childbearing motivations and more negative childbearing motivations. Specifically, the relationship between climate anxiety and childbearing motivations was partly to fully explained by threat perceptions, suggesting that worries about the future environment could be an important factor in emerging adults’ complex reproductive considerations. No gender moderation was found. These findings underscore the need for policy interventions that provide psychological support and targeted educational resources to assist young adults in navigating the complex interplay between climate anxiety, threat perceptions, and their decisions regarding childbearing.

O presente artigo objetiva descrever os procedimentos de adaptação e evidências iniciais de validade do Childbearing Motivation Questionnaire (CBQ) para o Brasil. O CBQ está constituído por duas escalas: a primeira avalia as motivações positivas para ter filhos (PCM) e a segunda, as motivações negativas (NCM). A adaptação foi realizada em cinco etapas: 1) tradução do instrumento; 2) síntese das versões traduzidas; 3) avaliação por juízes experts; 4) avaliação pelo público-alvo e 5) tradução reversa. Para a avaliação da estrutura fatorial realizou-se análises fatoriais exploratórias e confirmatórias em uma amostra de 1894 brasileiros de 18 a 68 anos de 25 estados do Brasil. A escala PCM apresentou uma solução fatorial de segunda ordem similar à proposta pelo autor enquanto a NCM apresentou uma estrutura unifatorial com boas propriedades psicométricas. Os resultados mostram o CBQ como um instrumento válido para a mensuração das motivações para ter filhos na população brasileira.

Abstract This study aimed to analyze the relationships between positive (PCM), negative (NCM) childbearing motivations and psychological, sociodemographic, family of origin and partner relationship variables in a sample of 1969 Brazilians (83.6% female), aged 18 to 50 years (M = 29.27; SD = 5.97). Spearman correlations, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis U-tests, and multiple regressions were performed. The results of the correlations and multiple regressions verified the relationship between both motivations and the various variables postulated. It was also verified that religiosity was the variable with greater predictive power for PCM and having or not having children was the variable with greater predictive power for NCM. In the group difference analysis, significant differences were found for PCM according to occupation, type of relationship, and presence/absence of a partner. As for the NCM, significant differences were found according to sex.

Couples beginning use of the CrM to avoid pregnancy have high levels of motivation, desire, and intention for future childbearing. The CEIBA study has prospective measures of desires, intentions, and sexual/fertility behaviors for up to 1 year. We will assess the impact of desires, intentions, and behaviors on the pregnancy rates among these couples.

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Abstract Childbearing motivations are trait-like dispositions to feel, think, and act in a certain way in response to various aspects of parenthood. They shape human desire to have a child and underpin the decision about becoming a parent. A self-report tool to measure positive and negative childbearing motivations with their specific dimensions—the Childbearing Questionnaire (CBQ)—was developed in the US and has gained popularity over the past few decades as an increasing number of individuals choose not to have children. In the current article we present two studies, in which we developed and psychometrically validated a short version of the CBQ (The Childbearing Questionnaire-Short Form; CBQ-SF). In Study 1, we developed the CBQ-SF and verified its psychometric properties using a sample of 939 childless adults (25–44 years old). In Study 2, we cross-validated the CBQ-SF on a sample of 1803 childless adolescents aged from 18 to 20. Overall, our findings demonstrated that the CBQ-SF is a psychometrically sound instrument for comprehensively assessing childbearing motivations across different developmental periods (from late adolescence to middle adulthood). Most notably, our short measure preserves the multidimensionality of childbearing motivations and allows individuals’ motivational profiles for parenthood to be identified. Future research directions and practical implications are discussed.

Abstract Objective Guided by Self‐Determination Theory, the study explored how maternal and paternal prenatal childbearing motivations relate to toddlers' adjustment via parental competence and parenting style. Background Although considerable research shows consistent effects of parenting styles on child adjustment, why some parents adopt any specific style is unclear. To explore this, two broad types of childbearing motivations (autonomous and controlled) were conceptualized as early markers of parental competence, specific parenting styles, and subsequent child adjustment. Method One‐hundred and fifty‐five married, heterosexual, Israeli couples ( N = 310) participated in a 2‐year longitudinal study from pregnancy through 20 months postpartum. Childbearing motivations were measured during pregnancy (T1), parental competence at 4 months postpartum (T2), and parenting styles and child behavior problems at 20 months postpartum (T3). Results A dyadic longitudinal path model revealed that childbearing motivations of both parents were positively associated with an adaptive, authoritative parenting style via parental competence. Moderate indirect effects of controlled childbearing motivations on toddlers' behavior problems were evident through the less adaptive—authoritarian and permissive—parenting styles. Conclusion This study underscores the importance of childbearing motivations as early indicators of future parenting styles and child adjustment and sheds light on parenting as a complex dyadic process.

Procedures used in counseling women during their early childbearing and family formation years are described and discussed. The variety of attitudes and motivations associated with conception and childbearing and pregnancy may generate conflicts in the family and adversely affect the mental health of parent and child. Early recognition of these conflicts can better prepare the parents for childrearing and this can be achieved through specific counseling techniques. Several techniques are described to be used with the mother alone including focused recollections intraself dialogues imaginary diaries and practical training in the maternal role. After childbirth sessions on family development and use of videotape playback of mother-infant interactions can be helpful. These procedures can be of special use in women with particular reproductive-related problems and in studies of childbearing motivations.

In this study we assume that fertility decisions are made one birth at a time and use longitudinal data collected from 401 married couples over a two-year period to explore how having a child affects two types of fertility motivation and three types of fertility desires. Using a series of five constrained multiple regression analyses, we tested the effects of two childbearing variables on these five types of motivation and desires in the context of a large set of control variables also hypothesized to affect fertility motivation and desires. The results demonstrate that the childbearing variables have a substantial effect in all five regression models. Specific findings indicate that childbearing stimulates greater positive motivation for childbearing and an increase in the number of children desired. Although this situation would appear to create a positive feedback loop in which each child born further increases the motivation and desire for children, the findings also suggest three different mechanisms whereby childbearing causes a counterbalancing regulation of that loop. These mechanisms include a negative motivation mechanism, a satiation mechanism, and a delay mechanism. The effect of these mechanisms on the termination of childbearing is considered in conjunction with a fourth mechanism, the achievement of desired family size.

Background & aim: Despite the importance of motivation for having a child in the process of infertility treatment, there are few studies in this field. This study aimed to investigate the childbearingmotivations of infertile women and comparing the results with those of fertile women. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 308 women, including 96 infertile women referring to Milad Infertility Center of Mashhad, Iran, in 2015 selected by convenient sampling technique and 212 fertile women of reproductive ages selected from different healthcare settings. The childbearing motivations of participants was gathered through the Childbearing Motivation Questionnaire in two groups and compared using Mann-Whitney U test, and independent t-test. Data analysis was performed applying SPSS (version 16). Results: The mean scores of positive childbearingmotivations (PCM) in infertile and fertile women were 99.5±9.7 and 93.61±14.05 out of 112, respectively. The mean of all subscales of PCM, with the exception of “instrumental values of children,” of infertile women were significantly higher than fertile women (p=0.000). Also, The mean scores of negative childbearingmotivations (NCM) in infertile and fertile women were 44.7±10.1 and 52.80±9.26 out of 84, respectively. The mean of all subscales of NCM scores of infertile women were significantly lower than fertile women (p=0.000). Conclusion: The findings showed that infertile women had high PCM and low NCM and the experience of parenthood was very important for the infertile couples. It is suggested to offer the appropriate duration and type of treatment based on clients’ needs and their childbearing motivation in the counselling and treatment of infertile couples.

Our results demonstrate that career aspirations are a highly complex construct, and their relationship to childbearing motivation may differ depending on how women perceive their future in the labour market. The mere desire to engage in professional work is not detrimental to childbearing motivation, but the anticipated costs of having children become greater the more a woman is career-centred and the lower her self-esteem.

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The current low fertility rate in China has become a recognized fact, and the change in attitudes towards childbearing is one of the key reasons for it. Childbearing motivations are an important component of childbearing attitudes and are at the forefront of the sequence from childbearing attitudes to behavior. This article examines the cohort and gender differences within childbearing motivations by asking survey respondents why they want to have children. Based on data obtained from the 2020 wave of the China Family Panel Studies, this study uses cluster analysis to classify people's childbearing motivations into four categories: “low intention and negative”, “individual-oriented”, “dual-oriented emotional”, and “family-oriented”. The result shows that more than half of respondents still have a family-oriented motivation to engage in childbearing while the individual- and dual-oriented emotional motivations account for 23% and 15% respectively. Only 9% of the respondents have a “low intention and negative” childbearing motivation. Moreover, there exist significant inter-cohort differences regarding childbearing motivations. Earlier birth cohorts are more likely to have dual-oriented emotional and family-oriented motivations, whereas younger birth cohorts are more likely to have low intention and negative and individual-oriented motivations. Among the post-1980s and post-1990s cohorts, family-oriented motivations regarding childbearing gradually lose their dominance, whereas individual-oriented motivations increase significantly. In terms of gender differences, men's childbearing motivations are more traditional than women's, and the extent of cross-cohort change is smaller for men. The differences between men's and women's childbearing motivations tend to widen among the most recent generations. The study suggests that changes in educational attainment may be a possible explanation for this.

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Objective: This study aimed to: (1) describe the positive and negative childbearing motivations of primiparous women of advanced maternal age and their partners (AMA group) compared with their younger counterparts (comparison group) during pregnancy; (2) identify distinct childbearing motivational patterns in the AMA group; and (3) to explore their correlates. Background: First childbirth at advanced maternal age is a growing social concern, but few studies have explored couples’ childbearing motivational patterns, challenging the stereotypes that presuppose that this reproductive trend reflects ambivalent motivations. Methods: Forty-six couples in the AMA group and 44 couples in the comparison group responded to the Childbearing Motivations Scale during the third trimester of pregnancy. Results: The AMA group differed from the comparison group in positive but not negative childbearing motivations. Two childbearing motivational patterns were identified in the AMA group. The ‘realistic childbearing motivational pattern’ was characterised by highly positive motivations that coexisted with moderate negative motivations. The ‘disengaged childbearing motivational pattern’ was characterised by moderate positive motivations that coexisted with low negative motivations. These two patterns had comparable frequencies for women and men. Women who were less satisfied with their professional life and experienced prior adverse pregnancy outcomes and men who reported a higher deviation from child-timing expectations were more likely to report a ‘realistic childbearing motivational pattern’. Conclusion: Healthcare providers should avoid stereotyped views and develop couple-focused interventions across the reproductive lifespan and during antenatal care to promote satisfactory decisions and to prepare couples for the positive aspects and demands of childrearing.

Abstract Objective: This study aims to adapt and validate the Childbearing Motivation Questionnaire for use in Peru and to test the independence hypothesis between the two scales that compose it (Positive Childbearing Motivation and Negative Childbearing Motivation). Method: The process considered six steps: 1) Translations, 2) Synthesis of the translations, 3) Evaluation by judges, 4) Evaluation by the target audience, 5) Back-translation e 6) Validity analysis using factorial analysis, evaluation of internal consistency, and test of the independence of the scales through correlation analysis. The sample consisted of 1,054 Peruvians from 22 regions of Peru. Results: The Positive Childbearing Motivation scale showed a good fit for a bifactor, second-order structure, but the complementary bifactor indices indicate that the scale is mainly one-dimensional. The Negative Childbearing Motivation scale presented a unifactorial structure with adequate psychometric properties. Conclusion: The results show that the Childbearing Motivation Questionnaire is a valid instrument to measure the motivations to have children in Peru.

A preference for having a son has existed among Chinese parents for centuries due to, in part, sons having to provide financial support to elderly parents, while married daughters do not have this responsibility under Confucianism. Thus, this study examined the influence of parents' childbearing motivation (financial support or emotional companion) on children's development (academic performance and well-being) utilizing empirical data from the 2012 China Family Panel Studies. This study included 1,541 children (aged 10-15 years) and their parents who were surveyed <i>via</i> a questionnaire. Using exploratory factor analysis, two dimensions of parents' childbearing motivation were identified namely, utilitarian and psychological motivation. Furthermore, the invariance of the measurement model across the female and male group was tested. Then, results from structural equation modeling showed that parents' childbearing motivation, particularly expected utilitarian benefits, decreased children's expectation of the highest education, thus, worsening children's academic performance. Alternatively, emotional/psychological motivation appeared to increase children's self-esteem, thus, improving children's well-being. Furthermore, gender differences were also observed. These findings have provided important insights into how childbearing motivations influence children's development, thus, can be utilized to ensure positive development of future children in China.

Background and purpose: Female reproductive empowerment refers to the ability and rights to make free decisions in reproductive activities such as number of children and birth intervals. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between childbearing motivations and women reproductive empowerment. Materials and methods: In this descriptive-correlational study, 810 women living in both urban (n=500) and rural (n= 310) areas participated. They were selected via two stage cluster sampling in Sari healthcare centers, 2017. Data were collected using a demographic-reproductive characteristics checklist, the Childbearing Questionnaire (CBQ), and Women's Empowerment Questionnaire. Data analysis was done applying independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and linear regression. Results: There was no significant association in the mean score for women reproductive empowerment in urban and rural areas (91.65± 12.86, 91.46±13.14, respectively, P= 0.593). The present study showed that women reproductive empowerment was directly associated with positive dimension of childbearing motivations (β=0.13, P <0.001) while it was inversely associated with negative dimension of childbearing motivations (β= -0.30, P <0.001). Also, women employment status (β=0.11, P= 0.003), husband's educational background (β=0.13, P= 0.029), and age of the last child (β= -0.07, P= 0.021) were amongst the factors affecting women reproductive empowerment. Conclusion: Women reproductive empowerment is associated with diferent socio-economic factors among which husbands' educational level is believed to be highly effective. Therefore, appropriate planning on this issue is of great benefit in improving women reproductive empowerment.

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Cross‐nationally, observed fertility is well below mean levels of reported ideal family size and also usually well below survey respondents' fertility desires and intentions. The United States is an exception. In this article we: (1) discuss the importance of fertility ideals and intentions for understanding observed fertility levels, (2) propose a model that can account for variable attitude‐behavior consistency, and (3) use this model as a framework to examine trends in American women's fertility ideals, intentions, and actual fertility. Our study uses data from the General Social Surveys and the Current Population Surveys. We ask whether preferences and intentions for moderate family sizes have eroded with time. The answer is remarkably clear: the dominant American ideals and intentions are for two or three children, and these preferences have persisted across the last three decades. The unusual aggregate correspondence between fertility intentions and behavior in the United States is explained by an apparent offsetting of factors that increase/decrease fertility relative to intentions.

Women's empowerment--as assessed using currently available measures--is not consistently associated with a desire for smaller families or the ability to achieve desired fertility in these Sub-Saharan African countries. Further research is needed to determine what measures are most applicable for these contexts.

Since most Americans exert some control over the size of their families, their reproductive desires are obviously a determinant of their reproductive performance. This fact received explicit recognition during the 1950's through the Growth of American Families Study and the two socalled Princeton Studies, but for periods prior to this no published analyses relating to the nation as whole may be found.' For * The research discussed in this paper is sup-

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<titre>R&#233;sum&#233;</titre>L&#8217;id&#233;al de la famille &#224; deux enfants n&#8217;est plus universellement r&#233;pandu en Europe, mais les raisons d&#233;terminant la pr&#233;f&#233;rence pour un nombre donn&#233; d&#8217;enfants n&#8217;ont pas encore fait l&#8217;objet de recherches syst&#233;matiques. Nous utilisons les donn&#233;es de l&#8217;Eurobarom&#232;tre portant sur les pr&#233;f&#233;rences des personnes &#226;g&#233;es de 20 &#224; 39 ans interrog&#233;es dans les r&#233;gions des 15 pays membres de l&#8217;Union europ&#233;enne en 2001 auxquelles nous appliquons des mod&#232;les de r&#233;gression logistique. Nous adoptons une approche multiniveau pour examiner les facteurs aux niveaux individuel et r&#233;gional qui influencent les pr&#233;f&#233;rences en mati&#232;re de taille de la famille en prenant en compte les similitudes entre les personnes qui partagent le m&#234;me environnement d&#233;mographique et socio-&#233;conomique non observable. Le r&#233;sultat principal de notre &#233;tude est que la f&#233;condit&#233; r&#233;elle des g&#233;n&#233;rations plus &#226;g&#233;es influence les pr&#233;f&#233;rences des g&#233;n&#233;rations plus jeunes: dans les r&#233;gions o&#249;, par le pass&#233;, le nombre r&#233;el d&#8217;enfants par famille a &#233;t&#233; en moyenne moins &#233;lev&#233;, la probabilit&#233; de pr&#233;f&#233;rer avoir une famille de petite taille est plus &#233;lev&#233;e chez les personnes en &#226;ge de procr&#233;er.

A sample of 1,123 sixth, ninth, and twelfth graders in two Southern counties was questioned to ascertain how many children they think is ideal. More than three-fourths of the students in each grade had given thought to an ideal number of children for themselves; fewer had thought about the ideal number for the average American couple. Two and three children were the modal responses; mean ideal sizes were 3.02 for self and 3.16 for the average couple. The range of acceptable fertility behavior, “too few” or “too many” children, is defined by medians of 1.56 and 5.96. Ideal and acceptable family sizes increase slightly in the higher grades. A sex difference in ideals appeared only at grade 12; girls wanted more children. Negroes wanted fewer children than did whites at grade 6, more at grade 12. Size of family of orientation was directly related to ideals at grades 6 and 9, but the relation was curvilinear at grade 12. The direct relation between ideals and socioeconomic status became more pronounced at grade 12. Ideal sizes were larger for Catholics than for other religious groups. The study lends at least minimal support to the notion that early socialization affects ideas about family size.

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Summary Summary From a survey conducted in the Irish Republic, data on ideal family size are given. Irish wives have high family size preferences, the overall mean ideal family size being 4.3 children. The Irish data are compared with American and western European; they show that the ideals of wives in Ireland are significantly higher than in these other countries. The concept of ideal family size appears to possess validity in its own right, and is not solely a rationalization of actual fertility experience.

This study tests the hypothesis that, in Nepal, measures of ideal family size mask an underlying preference for sons, making some people willing to have families larger than their ideal. Existing evidence suggests that men are likely to have stronger preferences for sons than are women. This research uses empirical evidence to examine the hypothesis that husbands are more willing than their wives to pursue the birth of sons at the cost of an increasingly large completed family size. A Multiple-response Fertility Preference Scale was developed to test these propositions among a sample of couples. The methodology was successful in demonstrating differential patterns of decisionmaking between husbands and wives that are otherwise obscured by more simplistic, single-response measures (for example, ideal family size). The results indicate that husbands are consistently more willing than their wives to pursue the birth of sons at the expense of larger family sizes, and that the birth of daughters is not pursued to a similar degree by wives or husbands.

Mean family size as obtained in surveys generally exceeds the number of children born per woman at current rates (the total fertility rate). Many writers have concluded from such data for France that French people have fewer children than they would wish. Their reproductive intentions are frustrated by material and financial obstacles which public action has not succeeded in removing. Some examples of this interpretation of the data are provided in this paper but its validity is questioned. The discrepancy between family size and actual fertility is found in all industrialized countries and particularly those in the European Economic Community. 2 averages that come from radically different distributions cannot be compared. The concept of an ideal family size expresses a norm that cannot take account of the diversity of individual circumstances that determine the value of the period fertility rate. (authors) (summaries in ENG FRE SPA)

Abstract This study is an assessment of the relevance of subjective efficacy and ideal family size as predictors of favorability toward birth control. The samples considered are male factory workers in five developing nations. The effects of ideal family size and subjective efficacy are generally strong relative to those of education and the other social variables that are considered. The focus of the study is an analysis of whether subjective efficacy and ideal family size function more as independent determinants or more as intervening variables. Overall these psychological variables function more as independent determinants than as intervening variables, but in some samples these two functions are equally important.

A review of criticisms of the family as a predictive index of fertility is presented. The critical points focus on the concept of family size and psychological and sociocultural suppositions implicit in the interviewing techniques especially in relation to non-Western developing nations. The existence of family size data provides the opportunity for time-differential studies within and between societies. Maximum utility of the data would be served by substitution of the word best for ideal in studies of developing nations.

This article reports upon results from a European Union funded project on the integration of children of international migrants in Britain, France and Germany. It provides both a descriptive and a multivariate analysis of the factors that determine attitudes towards ideal family size. The results reveal that there are large differences between ethnic groups in Britain: Indian and Pakistani respondents in Britain expressed a preference for significantly larger families. However, many children of international migrants expressed a desire for smaller families than the autochthonous population in both countries. This was particularly the case for Portuguese respondents in France and Turks in Germany. Religious affiliation also had a significant effect, above and beyond ethnicity per se. Both Moslems and Christians preferred larger families than those with no religious affiliation. The article concludes that ethnic differences in attitudes towards fertility behaviour will remain important in the foreseeable future in western Europe, particularly in Britain.

From part of a survey conducted in five European countries, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy and West Germany, data are given on the opinions of 4207 fertile married women and their husbands on ideal family size and on whether their existing children were planned or not. Data are tabulated according to the respondents' ages and the number of children in their existing families. Differences and similarities between various countries are discussed.

Ideal family size (IFS) is measured in social surveys to indicate unmet need for contraception and impending shifts in fertility behaviour. Whether exceeding IFS affects parental behaviour in ways that result in lower investments in child nutrition, well-being, and educational attainment is not known. This study examines parental IFS and the association between exceeding stated ideals and child nutritional status in a high-fertility, high-mortality population in the Bolivian Amazon. Height-for-age z-scores, weight-for-age z-scores, weight-for-height z-scores, stunting, haemoglobin, and anaemia status in 638 children aged 0-5 years are predicted as a function of birth order in relation to parental IFS, adjusting for household characteristics and mother and child random effects. Children of birth orders above paternal IFS experience higher weight-for-age z-scores when living further away from the market town of San Borja, consistent with underlying motivations for higher IFS and lower human capital investment in children in more remote areas (β = .009, p = .027). Overall, we find no statistical evidence that birth orders in excess of parental ideals are associated with compromised child nutrition below age 2, a period of intensive breastfeeding in this population. Despite a vulnerability to nutritional deficiencies postweaning for children age 2-5, there was no association between birth order in excess of parental ideals and lower nutritional status. Further studies examining this association at various stages of the fertility transition will elucidate whether reported ideal or optimal family sizes are flexible as trade-offs between quality and quantity of children shift during the transition to lower fertility.

Consensus about the differing characteristics of men and women exists across groups differing in sex, age, marital status, and education. Masculine characteristics are positively valued more often than feminine characteristics. Positively‐valued masculine traits form a cluster entailing competence; positively‐valued feminine traits reflect warmth‐expressiveness. Sex‐role definitions are incorporated into the self‐concepts of both men and women; moreover, these sex‐role differences are considered desirable by college students and healthy by mental health professionals. Individual differences in sex related self‐concepts are related to sex‐role relevant behaviors such as achieved and ideal family size. Sex‐role perceptions also vary as a function of maternal employment.

Summary Data from a survey of 1699 currently (once) married males are used in examining ideal family size in Northern Ireland, an area where fertility remains quite high by west European standards. Although there are several problems concerning the measurement and use of ideal family size, an analysis of the Northern Irish data indicates that the responses appear to be valid. For example, most respondents can formulate an ideal family size in numerical terms, there is a considerable degree of variation in the responses and these are not necessarily a function of actual family size. Northern Irish family size ideals (mean 3·6) are considerably greater than those of many west European countries and these ideals also vary within Northern Ireland. Religious grouping proves to be the major factor influencing these variations, with Roman Catholics generally expressing an ideal (mean 4·4) for large families. However, other factors are also associated with variations in ideal family size and the paper considers the roles played by education, age, occupation, region of residence and religiosity. Also, ideal family size does not always correspond with actual family size, indicating that while some married men possess relatively large family size ideals but have smaller families, others have large families but favour more moderately sized ideals. It is evident that attitudes to fertility in Northern Ireland are in a state of change. The value of ideal family size data in understanding fertility patterns is emphasized.

Egypt is already the most populous Arab country in the world with 93 million citizens in 2016 which may grow to about 120 million by 2030 if the same level of fertility continues. This paper aims to offer an overview of the evolution over time of the ideal number of children in Egypt, assessing previous researches and giving a particular emphasis on most recent data on such topic. In a context of raising fertility, whose causes are still unknown, we test the persistence of a high ideal number of children among younger cohorts.

Sub-Saharan African marriage analyses typically ignore the fact that many monogamous men may intend to become polygynous in the future. Analyses using data from the Niger, Burkina Faso, and Senegal Demographic and Health Surveys illustrate that I) currently monogamous men can be divided into two distinct marriage groups based on their future marriage intentions, and 2) future marriage intentions may be associated with reported ideal family size desires. Hence researchers need to consider sub-Saharan African men’s unique roles and relationships in the development of survey questions for men, and in the planning of family planning program initiatives targeted to men.

Ideal family sizes remain at or above two in most low-fertility settings, but sub-replacement fertility ideals have been reported for urban China. The presence of restrictive family planning policies has led to a debate as to whether such ideals are genuine. This study exploits the ending of the one-child policy and the beginning of a universal two-child policy in October 2015 to investigate whether relaxing the restrictions led to an increase in ideal family size. We apply difference-in-differences and individual-level fixed-effect models to longitudinal data from a near-nationwide survey. For married individuals aged 20–39, relaxing the restrictions from one to two children increased the mean ideal family size by around 0.2 and the proportion who desired two or more children by around 19 percentage points. Findings suggest that although reported ideal family sizes have been reduced by policy restrictions, sub-replacement ideal family sizes in urban China appear to be genuine.

Summary A random sample of adults in the Detroit Metropolitan Area stated what they considered to be the “ideal size” for the average American family. There was a strong consensus (90%) on an ideal of 2, 3 or 4 children. The “mean ideal” of 3.15 is above replacement needs but does not presage a return to a “large family” pattern. The differences between social strata in “mean ideal size” are very small but consistent in direction with historic fertility differentials. For women with completed families “ideal size” was greater than actual size for all social strata.

The role of the personal ideal family size for international migrants has rarely been studied in the current debate on fertility and migration in the European context. It is not known to which extent the reduction of fertility observed among immigrants who settle in a country where fertility is lower than in their country of origin is the result of a change in fertility norms among those immigrants. The study of migrants’ ideals family size has the potential to shed light on fertility norms without the interference of economic conditions and migration-related disruptive phenomena. Due to the complexity of its migration context, Italy is an interesting destination country for studying changes in migrants’ ideal family sizes. This paper uses data from the survey of the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) on immigrant families conducted in 2011-12. We compare the personal ideal family size of women of reproductive age with the prevalent norm in their country of origin, applying a multinomial logistic regression analysis. Results show that the country of origin has an important role in the determination of immigrants’ ideal family sizes. Women from countries where large families are the ideal are more likely to show a lower personal ideal family size compared to their non-migrant co-nationals, while women from countries where two children are considered ideal mostly share the same norm. The occurrence of fertility preferences expressed in a non-numeric form (e.g. “Up to God”) changes between women with different countries of origin. This study confirms that conformity with the ideal of the country of origin is more likely among women who migrated as adults. At the same time, the number of years spent in the destination country is not significantly associated with a shift away from the norms prevalent in the country of origin. Finally, female empowerment and gender equity show their effects mainly on the reduction of non-numeric responses. * This article belongs to a special issue on migrant fertility.

Perceived ideal number of children differs among women's socioeconomic and demographic strata. Unmet fertility desire was also found which indicates that reproductive knowledge and health care services are still necessary for some socio-demographically disadvantaged/vulnerable people and this group should be regularly monitored to control population growth.

Introduction: the relevance of studying fertility across time and space Tomáš Sobotka Debate International political economy and future fertility trends Alícia Adserà Moving out the parental home and partnership formation as social determinants of low fertility Albert Esteve, Diederik Boertien, Ryohei Mogi and Mariona Lozano “Catching up with ‘compressed modernity”’ - How the values of Millennials and Gen-Z’ers could reframe gender equity and demographic systems Stuart Gietel-Basten Future fertility trends are shaped at the intersection of gender and social stratification Trude Lappegård The wish for a child Anna Rotkirch Fertility will be determined by the changing ideal family size and the empowerment to reach these targets Wolfgang Lutz Marriage will (continue to) be the key to the future of fertility in Japan and East Asia Setsuya Fukuda Review Article Ultra-low fertility in East Asia: Confucianism and its discontents Yen-hsin Alice Cheng Research Articles Laggards in the global fertility transition David Shapiro, Andrew Hinde Projecting future births with fertility differentials reflecting women’s educational and migrant characteristics Michaela Potančoková, Guillaume Marois Decomposing changes in first birth trends: Quantum, timing, or variance Ryohei Mogi, Michael Dominic del Mundo What factors support the early age patterns of fertility in a developing country: the case of Kyrgyzstan Konstantin Kazenin, Vladimir Kozlov Marital fertility decline and child mortality in the Sardinian longevity Blue Zone Michel Poulain, Dany Chambre, Pino Ledda, Anne Herm Future orientation and fertility: cross-national evidence using Google search Nicolò Cavalli Selected Wittgenstein Centre databases on fertility across time and space Kryštof Zeman, Tomáš Sobotka

This article examines the obtaining trends in women's ideal family size preferences and family planning practices in rural Kenya. By using primary data collected from three samples drawn from the Abagusii, Abaluyia and Masai ethnic groups, the research findings suggest a declining trend in ideal family size preferences and increasing rates in the adoption of family planning methods. These research findings holds some important implications for the reversion of the recorded high population growth rates particularly among the Abagusii and Abaluyia of western Kenya.

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Recent research has noted a negative relationship between ideal family size (IFS) and proabortion attitudes (AA) which is independent of religious affiliation. The present investigation extends the investigation of this relationship in several ways. First, we find considerable variation in abortion attitudes among the Protestant denominations; this finding warrants a denomination-specific analysis. Second, controlling for religious affiliation within Protestantism, we find numerous examples of the spuriousness of the IFS-AA relationship. Third, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding abortion is found to have limited impact on the number of significant associations between IFS and AA. At the same time, for most denominations, IFS remains a significant predictor of AA. Fourth, we assess the importance of IFS relative to seven other independent variables in a multiple regression analysis and find that IFS is a significant predictor of an index of overall abortion attitudes. While Renzi’s hypothesis is therefore successfully extended in each stage of this analysis, numerous exceptions appear, particularly for denominations with strong proabortion sentiments. Finally, we note that IFS may have a limited history as a predictor variable if a national consensus emerges around the two child family.

The paper explores why Muslim women in France have, on average, higher ideal family sizes than non-Muslim women to better understand the socioeconomic and sociocultural factors that underlie Muslim women’s higher desired and realized fertility.

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Objective: Family size substantially contributes to an improved child and maternal well-being and economic growth of a nation. In this paper, we aim at determining possible determinants of ideal or preferred family size as desired by married women in Nigeria. Material and Methods: An extracted dataset from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic Health Survey were analysed using a Bayesian stepwise approach that involves simultaneous selection of variables and smoothing parameters. The model is geo-additive - it allows for geographical variations at a micro level of states, as well as both linear and nonlinear effects of variables to be investigated. Within a Bayesian context, we assigned appropriate priors on all the parameters and functions. Results: Findings reveal that substantial geographical variations in the preference of family size exist across the states. Further, the results from the spatial analysis showed that married women from the Northern states have the desire for more children, as compared to their southern counterparts. Respondent's level of education, type of marital union, sex of household head, age, wealth index, religion, working status, and the number of siblings are significantly associated with their ideal family size. Mother's age at first birth is significantly non-linearly related to the ideal family size. Conclusion: Government and policymakers need to pay attention to findings from this study, as it can help in designing better strategies that will enable the attainment of the Millenium Development Goals that are firmly related to fertility and family sizes.

The persistence of the two-child family ideal is no longer universally widespread in Europe but the reasons why people prefer a given number of children have not yet been systematically investigated. We examine the individual and regional factors of ideal family size by taking into account the unobservable similarities of people sharing the same demographic and socio-economic environment. Multilevel binary and ordered logistic regression models are implemented by using 2001 Eurobarometer data. The hierarchical structure is defined by respondents embedded within regions of the countries of the European Union. The main result is that the context of actual fertility of the older generations influences the preferences of the younger cohorts: the lower on average the past actual childbearing in the region the higher is the individual probability of people in reproductive ages to prefer smaller families. (authors)

This report presents findings from an analysis of 1996 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey data. Population is expected to reach 33 million by the year 2000. In 1996 89% of men and 84% of women knew at least one modern method of contraception. Women had widespread knowledge of the pill injectable and condom. Men were familiar with the condom the pill and female sterilization. 23% of women and 26% of men had ever used a modern method. 12% of women currently used a modern method. Most women used the pill followed by the injectable. 33% of nonusers expected to use contraception in the next year. 19% of women had unmet need for contraception. The total fertility rate among women aged 15-49 years was 5.8 lifetime births/woman. Fertility was higher among rural and uneducated women. 12% of women aged 15-19 years had a first birth. Women aged 25-49 years had a median marriage age of 18.2 years. 60% of women were married; 7% were cohabiting; and 10% were widowed divorced or separated. The median age of first intercourse was 16.7 years for women aged 25-49 years and 18.1 years for men aged 25-59 years. Women desired 5.5 children while men desired 5.9. Mens ideal family size was higher than womens regardless of demographic characteristics. Both uneducated men and women had higher ideals. 27% of women and 14% of men desired a stop to childbearing. Men on the mainland were 5 times more likely to desire a stop to childbearing. Infant mortality was 88 deaths/1000 live births; child mortality was 137/1000. 18% of women were circumcised. Knowledge of AIDS was widespread.

How persistent and universal has the two child family ideal been in Europe during the last three decades? We analyze responses of women of reproductive age from 168 surveys conducted in 37 countries in 1979–2012. A two‐child ideal has become nearly universal among women in all parts of Europe. Countries that used to display higher ideal family size have converged over time toward a two‐child model. Six out of ten women in Europe consider two children as ideal, and this proportion is very similar in different regions. The mean ideal family size has become closely clustered around 2.2 in most countries. Gradual shifts can be documented toward more women expressing an ideal of having one child (and, quite rarely, having no children) and a parallel decline in an ideal of three or more children. An increasing number of European countries saw their mean ideal family size falling to relatively low levels around 1.95–2.15. However, with the exception of one survey for eastern Germany and two of the surveys not included in our study owing to high nonresponse or low sample size, none of the analyzed surveys suggests a decline in mean ideal family size to levels considerably below replacement, i.e., below 1.9 children per woman.

The state of Meghalaya which is located in northeast India is the homeland of three matrilineal tribes namely the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo, constituting 80% of the total population of the state. According to the latest National Family Health Survey 3 (NFHS 3) total fertility rate in the state is 3.8. Of the 29 states of the country, the state of Meghalaya ranks third in Total Fertility Rate (TFR) and also the mean ideal family size of women in the state. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the determinants and trends of ideal number of children of women in a matrilineal state of Meghalaya, as it may give a broad picture about the future population trends. Ideal family size may be influenced by a host of factors such as social, economic, cultural, demographic and environmental factors. The Chi square analysis shows a significant association between ideal number of children with place of residence, religion, highest educational level, working status, standard of living index and more importantly the age of the respondents in the NFHS-3 survey. A stepwise regression analysis was incorporated to understand the nature and magnitude of association of various characteristics with ideal number of children.

This article deals with fertility concern in Russian and Finnish population policies. The article points out that some commonly known discourses are persistently used as arguments in fertility-related population policies. In Finland, these include, for instance, discourses on ageing nation and economic competitiveness. Russian policymakers use a crisis discourse that consists of three sub-discourses: demographic crisis, reproductive health in crisis and family crisis. The Russian government implements pronatalist population policies, whereas Finnish authorities hesitate to use the term population policy because of its emphasis on reproductive rights on the one hand, and the negative associations of population policy on the other. Russia has both population and family programs, as well as a new law with a speci? cally pronatalist emphasis. Conversely, Finland uses family policy as a tool of population policy.

Women's empowerment in family planning strengthens families and communities. Using 2014/2015 Demographic and Health Surveys data from 7,168 Guatemalan women, ages 35 and above with at least one living child, we examined indicators of empowerment in four domains - economic, educational, social, and contraceptive - and their relation to the number of living children compared to the ideal number of children. We reveal our analysis showing that economic, educational, and social empowerment predicted achieving the preferred number of children. Education and control over their own income are two critical empowerment factors for Guatemalan women.

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Reproductive changes in sub-Saharan Africa are contingent upon women's socioeconomic conditions and informational and cultural resources. This study focuses on socioeconomic and cultural determinants and correlates of the intention to stop childbearing and of contraceptive use among urban women in Mozambique. It uses data from a survey of 1,585 married women conducted in Greater Maputo in 1993, and it employs logistic regression for multivariate analysis. The results of the analysis indicate that although the stopping intention and contraceptive use are interrelated and similarly affected by such factors as education or the area of residence, the intention to stop childbearing is mainly driven by women's perception of their material conditions and socioeconomic security, while contraceptive use is largely a product of social diffusion and the legitimization of innovative, Western-origin information and technologies. The study proposes that these findings may help explain the unique features of the fertility transition in sub-Saharan Africa.

Childbearing intentions are primary predictor of childbearing behaviors, particularly in low fertility societies. This study examined the role of relative status of women in childbearing intentions in Iran where fertility has been declining since 1986 and it has been around the replacement level during the last two decades. Data from the 2010 Iran's Multiple Indicator Demographic and Health Survey (IrMIDHS) were used to estimate the effect of relative status of women on intention to have more children among women with one child and those with two children. The results showed modest effect of relative status of women on future childbearing intentions at both parity one and two controlling for socioeconomic and demographic factors. One implication from this finding is that within low fertility regimes where fertility level is around or below replacement level, the relative status of women is no more as important determinant of childbearing intention as in situations of high fertility regimes. This interpretation is consistent with the fact that most of the studies showing strong effect from relative status of women on childbearing are based on data from the situations where fertility level has been at the pre-transitional level.

The aim of this study is to examine changes in fertility ideals and intentions of women and fertility gap at both macro and micro level for the 1993-2018 period using data of Turkey Demographic and Health Surveys (TDHS), and to analyze fertility intentions of currently married women by parity, i.e. number of children ever born, using 2018 TDHS data employing descriptive and logistic regression methods. According to the findings, while ideal number of children increased in the 25-year period, intended number of children decreased. Although fertility gap is positive when using conventional TFR, it is negative when adjusted TFR is used, meaning actual fertility is greater than ideal or intended number of children. There has been an increase in the level of pronatalism in Türkiye recently, but it would be wrong to conclude that this is reflected in intentions and behaviors. Our multivariate findings covering all parities show that age and child-related variables are important determinants of women's fertility intention. Additionally, region, mother tongue and use of contraceptive methods are important. Socioeconomic variables, however, were not found to be significantly associated with birth intention. Some of these were found to be significant in intention for progression to first- and second-births.

The premise that unintended childbearing has significant negative effects on the behavior of mothers and on the health of infants strongly influences public health policy and much of current research on reproductive behaviors. Yet, the evidence base presents mixed findings. Using data from the U.S. National Survey of Family Growth, we employ a measure of pregnancy intentions that incorporates the extent of mistiming, as well as the desire scale developed by Santelli et al. (Studies in Family Planning, 40, 87-100, 2009). Second, we examine variation in the characteristics of mothers within intention status groups. Third, we account for the association of mothers' background characteristics with their pregnancy intentions and with the outcomes by employing propensity score weighting. We find that weighting eliminated statistical significance of many observed associations of intention status with maternal behaviors and birth outcomes, but not all. Mistimed and unwanted births were still less likely to be recognized early in pregnancy than intended ones. Fewer unwanted births received early prenatal care or were breast-fed, and unwanted births were also more likely than intended births to be of low birth weight. Relative to births at the highest level of the desire scale, all other births were significantly less likely to be recognized early in pregnancy and to receive early prenatal care.

Conventional theories have little to say about the level at which fertility will stabilize at the end of the transition although it is often assumed that replacement fertility of about 2.1 births per woman will prevail in the long run. However, fertility has dropped below the replacement level in virtually every population that has moved through the demographic transition. If future fertility remains at these low levels populations will decline in size and age rapidly.This paper attempts to contribute to the understanding of levels and trends of post-transitional fertility by examining the causes of discrepancies between reproductive preferences and observed fertility. Important examples of such deviations are found in many contemporary developed countries where desired family size is typically two children while fertility is well below replacement. A total of six factors are identified as the causes of these discrepancies. Of these factors, the fertility depressing impact of the rising age at childbearing is one of the most important. Fortunately, this factor reduces fertility only as long as the age at childbearing keeps rising. As a consequence, once the mean age stops rising—as it eventually must—fertility will rise closer to the desired level of two children, because the depressing effect is then removed. The current low levels of fertility in many developed countries may therefore not be permanent.

We study the aggregate gap between intended and actual fertility in 19 European countries and the US based on a cohort approach. This complements prior research that had mainly used a period approach. We compare the mean intended number of children among young women aged 20 to 24 (born in the early 1970s), measured during the 1990s in the Fertility and Family Surveys, with data on completed fertility in the same cohorts around age 40. In a similar manner, we compare the share who state that they do not want a child with actual cohort childlessness. Our exploration is informed by the cognitive-social model of fertility intentions developed by Bachrach and Morgan (Popul Dev Rev 39(3): 2013). In all countries, women eventually had, on average, fewer children than the earlier expectations in their birth cohort, and more often than intended, they remained childless. The results reveal distinct regional patterns, which are most apparent for childlessness. The gap between intended and actual childlessness is widest in the Southern European and the German-speaking countries and smallest in the Central and Eastern European countries. Additionally, we analyze the aggregate intentions-fertility gap among women with different levels of education. The gap is largest among highly educated women in most countries studied and the educational gradient varies by region, most distinctively for childlessness. Differences between countries suggest that contextual factors-norms about parenthood, work-family policies, unemployment-shape women's fertility goals, total family size, and the gap between them.

In this discussion we shall consider the issues of semen quality and if it has a significant impact on human fertility in Europe in the future? In the extreme case of sterility a man cannot father a child even after medical intervention. The more likely situation is subfecundity causing a longer waiting time to conception. Fecundability is the monthly probability of conception, but does subfecundity cause an overall reduction in fertility if couples just have to wait a little longer to have their children? Period fertility is the number of births in a given calendar year in relation to the number of women of fertile age. Period fertility can be affected negatively by the ‘tempo effect’ whereby couples have the same number of children over their lifetime, but childbirth is postponed. This results in a higher mean age of childbearing. The postponement may be voluntary or due to subfecundity. A reduction in period fertility due to the tempo effect means that the delayed births are lost from the age structure permanently (unless the mean age of childbearing falls again) resulting in fewer children and hence more rapid population ageing. The quantum of fertility is the number of children a woman has over her lifetime. This can also be affected by a longer waiting period because there will be a lower probability of conception in older women, and there will also be an increased risk of discontinuity of the relationship (couples breaking up). There may also be a change in intention perhaps because they are frustrated and stop trying for a pregnancy, or a new job situation or moving to a new location may diminish the desire for children. We must ask the biologists to help explain the apparent seasonal fluctuations in fertility. Data from Austria demonstrate lowest birth rates in the months of October, November and December. Demographers and social scientists would explain the low birth rates at the end of the year by seasonality of sexual activity and different habits, but there may be a biological explanation due to sperm quality, or changing male and female factors with seasons. There may be a reason for the causal relationship between the two phenomena of seasonality of sperm quality and birth rates. Demographically we are facing a decline in fertility which is dramatic because of its intensity and its occurrence over a short period of time. In the past there have been large fluctuations in fertility rates, and when we see dramatic effects we should firstly look for behavioural explanations as being the most likely cause of rapid changes. There is an example which is not widely known outside demographic circles when in 1968 in Japan there was a sudden 15% drop in birth rate in a single year. This could not be explained by any disorder, famine, war, political crisis or economic crisis, and the only explanation was finally found to be astrological. This was the year of the horse and fire which astrologically occurs every 40 years. Boys born in this year are supposed to be bad for their future wives and therefore are unable to get married. The Japanese people were able to prevent children being born in order to circumvent this disadvantage. Birth rate increased again the following year (Biraben, 1968). The recent rise in the age of motherhood is seen in all European countries, but in France it comes after a period of decreasing maternal age. The maternal age for first birth, and all births, in France over the 20th century shows a decline in all births from 1900 to 1975, then a rise to 2000 back to 1900 levels (Daguet, 2002). However, the context has changed because the older maternal age in 1900 was predominantly for subsequent pregnancies whereas in 2000 the age of first birth is now much higher than a century ago. It is hard to believe that contemporary fertility patterns showing temporal and cross-sectional variations could be primarily a result of variation in sperm quality. In particular, the variations in European fertility levels are stunning, changes in fertility have occurred very rapidly over time, and fertility levels vary systematically with proximity determinants such as use of contraceptives, prevalence of marriage and delays of child bearing. Nevertheless, while variation in sperm quality may not be a driving force of contemporary fertility patterns, other biological influences, and the interaction between biological factors and the socioeconomic context, may nevertheless be important for understanding contemporary fertility. Documenting such influences is part of my research into the ‘biodemography of fertility’ that is based on behavioural genetic models and which has showed convincingly that the role of genetic influences on fertility has increased in recent cohorts. For instance, the variation in fertility outcomes in younger cohorts is becoming increasingly determined by genetic factors occurring along two pathways. First, there are explicit biological mechanisms such as genetic variations which influence fecundity. Genetic influences on sperm quality also fall into this category. Second, there are behaviour-mediated biological influences such as individual variation in academic ability resulting in greater variations in education in comparison with previous years when women's involvement in higher or tertiary education was much lower. At present, we cannot disentangle these two pathways. In assessing the future role of these biological factors on fertility outcomes, it is important to note the interactions between biology, changes in behavioural patterns and decision processes. For instance, information about (genetically driven) variation in fecundity may have important impacts on the relevance for this variation on fertility outcomes. In particular, if individuals/couples were aware of their low fecundity at a relatively early age, they could adapt very well. An 18-year-old female who had knowledge of her very low monthly conception probability, and had 20 years to plan for one or two children, could manage very well especially if she had access to assisted reproduction technology including in vitro fertilization (IVF). The problem arises because many people do not find out about their low fecundity until relatively late in life. The implication of subfecundity is thus different for a man who learns about his poor sperm quality at the age of 35 or older when the window of opportunity for achieving desired fertility is markedly reduced. The problem about trends in semen quality is therefore amplified by socioeconomic trends which postpones childbearing towards the end of the female reproductive window, and also for males because there is no evidence for an increasing age gap between husbands and wives. It is unclear to what extent individual couples are informed about their expected fecundity with age, and how such information affects fertility trends. The problematic trends are the delays in childbearing combined with the trend towards subfecundity. Young couples should have more access to information about fecundity relatively early in life so that this could be taken into account to help them make their decisions accordingly. From a gynaecological point of view we must consider female in addition to male issues. A semen sample is a good parameter of male fertility but the process is more complex in the female requiring assessment of hormone levels, transvaginal scans, etc. We require information on factors which we know will affect female fecundity. We have acquired much knowledge on ovaries and fertility in the development of assisted reproduction. A young ovary has a large pool of follicles, but there are very few left by the age of 42 when fertility virtually stops. The polycystic ovary is a specific ovulatory disorder which is possibly due to fetal exposure to androgens. We may see a 32-year-old woman in the infertility clinic whose husband has poor semen quality, but, in addition, an ultrasound scan shows a small ovary looking like a 42-year-old ovary. Although she has normal hormones and menstruation, she is likely to be very subfertile because of oocyte depletion. Many of the mechanisms of the testicular dysgenesis syndrome could perhaps be transferred to similar disturbances in the female. Infertility in women is not just the problem of chlamydia and blocked tubes, ectopic pregnancy, fibroids, etc. but there are many dysfunctions in the ovary associated with poor oocyte quality resulting in an ovulatory fertility problem. We must remember the female in infertile couples. I have looked at the effects of diethylstilboestrol which is the archetypical endocrine disrupter whose effects were first seen in the female (Herbst et al., 1971). For example, altered sex ratio is a parameter which is not applicable to an individual, but affects a population adversely if it varies significantly from the norm. Similarly, a small change in sperm concentration or a small delay in time to conception has little effect on an individual but can have population consequences. In our studies we were able to analyse retrospectively pesticides and phthalates only because we kept biological specimens. Storing samples of urine, and to a lesser extent blood, is easy because they are readily accessible in abundant quantities and we should increase our use of repositories for biological samples in order to look for aetiological factors. Age-specific fertility is under the influence of biological determinants and behavioural determinants. The behavioural determinants are under our free will and are usually stronger than the biological determinants, and act as confounding factors in the general epidemiological approach to characterizing the biological factors. Behavioural determinants can be measured individually in each particular person, but that is rarely possible for the biological determinants. Normally, calendar time is used as a proxy measure for the biological effects in an attempt to interpret the temporal variations. There is little scope for inferring biological determinants from simple descriptive studies of calendar time variations of age-specific fertility and pregnancy rates which will never provide proof nor evidence of disproof. Biological investigators must familiarize themselves in great detail with the behavioural determinants, otherwise they will never be able to control for those confounders. Imaginative and sophisticated epidemiological designs are required to identify the weak signal in the presence of massive behavioural confounding. The aim of the biologist must be to provide the epidemiologists with better criteria for measuring male fertility than sperm counts and pregnancy. There have been attempts to refine methods for diagnosing male fertility, but these were set back by the advent of intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) which largely negated the definition of infertility on the basis of semen analysis. However, we must reassess this approach and try to find more robust tools to assess fertility. I suggest that an analysis of oxidative stress is an important factor, and also the integrity of DNA in the germ line which not only affects fertility but is also important for the health and well-being of the children. Oxidative stress and germ line DNA damage are correlated. A man's age is a significant factor in couple infertility. The sperm chromatin structure assay (Evenson et al., 1980, 2002) is a measure of sperm DNA fragmentation which shows that men in their early twenties have about 5% of their sperm population containing fragmented DNA. The levels of DNA fragmentation index (%DFI) increase in a near-linear fashion to age ≤80 (Wyrobek, unpublished data). Regression analysis shows an intersect between age and the 30% threshold DFI at ∼age 47. A highly significant correlation exists between the threshold %DFI of 30% and poorer pregnancy outcome by both in vivo (natural) fertilization and IVF, although the overall effect can be partly overcome by the IVF/ICSI procedures (Henkel et al., 2003, 2004; Bungum et al., 2004; Check et al., 2005; Evenson & Wixon, 2005). The %DFIs for men of similar ages is heterogeneous which may relate to antioxidant levels in semen in keeping with Dr Aitken's data on effects of oxidative stress. Some men in their twenties have very high levels of damage, whereas some men in their sixties have very low levels. There is a general hypothesis that DNA strand breaks are mostly due to ROS activity, which relates to the aging process, and the testis is not exempt. We have observed numerous cases in the reduction of men's sperm DFI values by elimination of exposure to reproductive toxicants, varicocele repair and the use of therapeutic dietary antioxidants. We know very little about the origins of DNA damage in the germ line and exactly what its consequences will be. Animal models have been helpful and we know that the ‘fertilized’ oocyte has tremendous potential for repairing DNA damage, but this is not perfect and persisting defects have the potential for producing mutations for the offspring which will impair development and the health of the offspring. We need more research on detailed mechanisms. Many of the assays in current use to look at sperm function, particularly DNA integrity, are generic assays without giving details of the specific nature of the DNA damage in the germ line. The cause of the damage is multifactorial and poorly understood.

Pregnancy intention was associated with health behaviors, prior to pregnancy and in early pregnancy, that may influence pregnancy course and birth outcomes.

We study the aggregate gap between intended and actual fertility in 19 European countries and the US based on a cohort approach. This complements prior research that had mainly used a period approach. We compare the mean intended number of children among young women aged 20 to 24 (born in the early 1970s), measured during the 1990s in the Fertility and Family Surveys, with data on completed fertility in the same cohorts around age 40. In a similar manner, we compare the share who state that they do not want a child with actual cohort childlessness. Our exploration is informed by the cognitive–social model of fertility intentions developed by Bachrach and Morgan (Popul Dev Rev 39(3):459–485, 2013). In all countries, women eventually had, on average, fewer children than the earlier expectations in their birth cohort, and more often than intended, they remained childless. The results reveal distinct regional patterns, which are most apparent for childlessness. The gap between intended and actual childlessness is widest in the Southern European and the German-speaking countries and smallest in the Central and Eastern European countries. Additionally, we analyze the aggregate intentions-fertility gap among women with different levels of education. The gap is largest among highly educated women in most countries studied and the educational gradient varies by region, most distinctively for childlessness. Differences between countries suggest that contextual factors—norms about parenthood, work–family policies, unemployment—shape women’s fertility goals, total family size, and the gap between them.

<ns3:p> <ns3:bold>Background</ns3:bold> : Vietnam's total fertility rate has been relatively stable around the replacement level since 2005. Meanwhile, fertility in the Southeast of Vietnam has always been far below the replacement level. As reproductive desires and intentions are important determinants of fertility, the article estimates family size desires and intentions in the Southeast and analyse related sociodemographic factors, contributing insights to the low fertility in this region. </ns3:p> <ns3:p> <ns3:bold>Methods</ns3:bold> : Based on data from a survey of people aged 18-45 in the Southeast in 2020, bivariate analysis and multinomial logistic regressions were applied to examine family size desires and intentions in this region. </ns3:p> <ns3:p> <ns3:bold>Results</ns3:bold> : Most respondents want two (57.3%) or more (33.1%) children, and only 8.4% of them want to have fewer than two children. There are wide gaps within reproductive desires and intentions and the actual fertility. The mean intended family size is nearly 2.1, lower than the mean desired family size but much higher than the total fertility rate in 2020. Young people and unmarried females are more likely to have desires and intentions of fewer than two children. The most frequent reason for no intention of attaining desired family sizes is the fear of not having enough financial resources to raise their children as their expectations. </ns3:p> <ns3:p> <ns3:bold>Discussion and Conclusion</ns3:bold> : The low fertility in the Southeast of Vietnam is not due to a substantial decline in the value of children, but mainly because socioeconomic conditions are not favourable for having two or more children. In the current context in the Southeast, when most people of reproductive age still want and intend to have at least two children, support policies to reduce difficulties and obstacles to having would be much more effective in increasing the fertility rate than later when the desire of fewer than two children become more popular. </ns3:p>