[Desire for children and employment--interaction between two life contexts regarding reproductive behaviour]

In the field of research concerning working women the common focus is based on organisational difficulties of combining work and family commitment. This study explores motivational correlations between the features of women's work and their desire for children. The latter was surveyed using the "Leipzig questionnaire on motives for having a child" (LKM). In this study 199 working women from East and West Germany participated. From July to October 2005 data was collected by questionnaire and passed by pyramid scheme. Occupational features were covered by educational level and job characteristics. For the latter the "Questionnaire on perceived job characteristics" (PT) was applied. The educational level is not related to the intensity of women's desire for children. Yet, women deal differently with their needs and expectations regarding motherhood depending on their educational level. The observed interactions between job characteristics and motives for having children and the intensity of women's desire for children respectively underline the motivational interconnectedness of these two life contexts. The motivation for having children is sensitive to features of socialisation, such as the level of education, and of daily situations, such as job characteristics. Thus it seems necessary to take more extensively into account people's biography and life conditions in order to understand the complex process of starting and having a family.