Arezoo Bagheri; Mahsa Saadati
Abstract
Background: Socio-economic factors, in addition to value and attitude changes, have had a major impact on fertility behavior of women toward childbearing. The main purpose of this study is to investigate childbearing desire of 6183 women in provinces with total fertility rate (TFR) lower (TFR ≤ 2) ...
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Background: Socio-economic factors, in addition to value and attitude changes, have had a major impact on fertility behavior of women toward childbearing. The main purpose of this study is to investigate childbearing desire of 6183 women in provinces with total fertility rate (TFR) lower (TFR ≤ 2) and upper (TFR > 2) than replacement level by classification and regression trees (CART) algorithm, as one of the most applicable classification trees. Method: In this study women’s job, place of residence, age, opinion, marriage age, educational level, and children ever born were investigated as predictors. The accuracy of fitted classification trees for CD in provinces with TFR ≤ 2 and TFR > 2 were 0.68 and 0.72, respectively. Results: As a result, women’s children ever born and age had significant roles on their desire to have a child in all provinces while their opinion toward childbearing had just effect on provinces with TFR ≤ 2. In provinces with TFR ≤ 2, 10 - 39 years old women with 2 children and less CEB were willing to have another child. Women with 2 or less children at the age of 10 - 29 as well as women with 3 or more than 3 children at the age of 20 - 29 had a desire for more children in provinces with TFR > 2. If the women have a positive attitude toward childbearing and their age is not high, they will desire to give birth to a child until they reach the ideal number of their children. Conclusion: Thus, policies in changing their attitudes toward childbearing and creating the necessary facilities to prevent delays in marriage could be an important step in changing fertility rates.
Arezoo Bagheri; Mahsa Saadati
Abstract
Background: A set of economic and social rules and regulations as well as cultural factors influence value of children; however, this value itself could alter fertility behaviors. The present study aimed at investigating the influence of the value of children on fertility behavior through considering ...
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Background: A set of economic and social rules and regulations as well as cultural factors influence value of children; however, this value itself could alter fertility behaviors. The present study aimed at investigating the influence of the value of children on fertility behavior through considering the impact of its attitudinal factors on childbearing desire, as one of the most important dimensions of fertility behavior.
Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 6231 females from 31 provinces of Iran, admitted to public health and treatment centers to vaccinate their children, during year 2014. The data collection tool was a questionnaire, including three value of children dimensions, including cultural (five items), social (seven items), and economic (four items) factors, and also demographic and attitudinal questions.
Results: Data were analyzed using SPSS-17 software and the factors influencing childbearing desire (CD) were examined by four SEMs for four age groups in AMOS-22. Goodness of fit models was confirmed by five fit indices. Only cultural factors had a significant direct effect on CD for 30 to 39 and 40 to 49 year-old females (P-values = 0.027, and < 0.001, respectively).
Conclusions: Thus, planners and policy makers should consider changes in the cultural value of children to implement successful policies to alter the current decreasing trend of fertility rate.
