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What do we need kids for? Childbearing motivations, personal values, and socio-demographic differences
Eugene Tartakovsky1, Mor Mizrahi1
1The School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Insights
This study identifies four childbearing motivation clusters: life enrichment, authority, preservation, and perpetuity. These motivations are linked to personal values and socio-demographic factors in young adults.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Demography
Background:
- Understanding the motivations behind childbearing is crucial for demographic and psychological research.
- Previous studies have explored factors influencing fertility decisions, but a comprehensive model of motivations is lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose and test a new conceptualization of childbearing motivations.
- To examine the relationships between childbearing motivations, personal values, and socio-demographic variables.
- To investigate the role of personal values as a mediator between socio-demographic factors and childbearing motivations.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study design.
- Stratified sample of 1,122 young Israeli Jews (aged 18-35) without children.
- Analysis of childbearing motivations, personal values, and socio-demographic variables.
Main Results:
- Four distinct clusters of childbearing motivations were identified: life enrichment, authority, preservation, and perpetuity.
- These motivation clusters formed a two-dimensional circumplex structure, mirroring the organization of personal values.
- Personal values partially mediated the relationship between socio-demographic variables and childbearing motivations, suggesting a contextualization mechanism.
Conclusions:
- Childbearing motivations are multifaceted and can be categorized into distinct goal-oriented clusters.
- Personal values play a significant role in shaping childbearing motivations and mediating socio-demographic influences.
- The findings provide a nuanced understanding of the preconception period and factors influencing fertility intentions.
Introduction:
In this study, we propose a new conceptualization of childbearing motivations and examine their links with personal values and socio-demographic variables during the preconception period.
Method:
To test our model, we conducted a cross-sectional study using a stratified sample of young Israeli Jews without children (aged 18-35, n = 1,122).
Results And Discussion:
We found that childbearing motivations form four clusters, reflecting different goals people strive to achieve through childbirth. We referred to these clusters as life enrichment, authority, preservation, and perpetuity. The four clusters formed a two-dimensional circumplex paralleling the structure of values. The pattern of connections between childbearing motivations and personal values corroborated the existence of a contextualization mechanism linking general and specific motivations. In addition, the indirect effects of socio-demographic variables on childbearing motivations through personal values showed that differences in childbearing motivations across socio-demographic groups may be partly attributed to variations in general motivational goals that characterize the groups.
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