Female university students’ fertility intentions and their psychosocial factors
Abstract Background Raising the birth rate can effectively increase the resulting labour supply and minimise the adverse impact of an ageing population on high-quality economic development since the demographic dividend is rapidly declining. The Chinese government has a “three-child” policy in place...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2024-03-01
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| Series: | BMC Public Health |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18121-9 |
| _version_ | 1797272998606012416 |
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| author | Penghao Qiao Yiming Li Yixuan Song Xi Tian |
| author_facet | Penghao Qiao Yiming Li Yixuan Song Xi Tian |
| author_sort | Penghao Qiao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Raising the birth rate can effectively increase the resulting labour supply and minimise the adverse impact of an ageing population on high-quality economic development since the demographic dividend is rapidly declining. The Chinese government has a “three-child” policy in place, yet the fertility rate is still falling. This study intends to investigate the present fertility intentions of female university students and assess the extent to which feminism has affected their intentions. It will next investigate the degree to which and the mechanisms by which the psychosocial factors have an impact on those intentions. Methods A cross-sectional survey of female university students was conducted in Nanjing, China, from February to March 2023. To assure the representativeness of the sample, a technique of stratified proportional sampling, PPS sampling, and convenience sampling was utilized. A total of 1124 valid samples were acquired from female university students in 15 comprehensive universities. The data were mined and analysed by SPSS (version 24.0) and AMOS (version 24.0) software. Results Overall female university students’ fertility intentions are low at this stage, with more than half (53.55%) of them having no clear desire to have children. The level of feminist identity significantly negatively affected the Intensity of desire to have children (-0.32) and child-number desires (-0.7). Psychosocial factors had a greater degree of influence on fertility intentions. The direct effect of the level of feminist identity and the perception of fertility hindrances on childbearing desires was -0.63 and -0.50 respectively, and the direct effect of the perception of fertility supports on childbearing intentions was 0.79. Conclusion The level of feminist identity is significantly and negatively related to childbearing desires. Psychosocial factors have a greater degree of influence on fertility intentions, with the level of feminist identity, the perception of fertility hindrances and the perception of fertility supports all significantly impacting fertility intentions. The findings of this study emphasise the importance of the government providing a full range of social security and employers providing better employee benefits to promote a fertility-friendly society. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T14:37:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e1e05a5874de418ab987f7c70c7bf495 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1471-2458 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T14:37:20Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-e1e05a5874de418ab987f7c70c7bf4952024-03-05T20:35:12ZengBMCBMC Public Health1471-24582024-03-0124111310.1186/s12889-024-18121-9Female university students’ fertility intentions and their psychosocial factorsPenghao Qiao0Yiming Li1Yixuan Song2Xi Tian3College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural UniversityCollege of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural UniversityCollege of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural UniversityCollege of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural UniversityAbstract Background Raising the birth rate can effectively increase the resulting labour supply and minimise the adverse impact of an ageing population on high-quality economic development since the demographic dividend is rapidly declining. The Chinese government has a “three-child” policy in place, yet the fertility rate is still falling. This study intends to investigate the present fertility intentions of female university students and assess the extent to which feminism has affected their intentions. It will next investigate the degree to which and the mechanisms by which the psychosocial factors have an impact on those intentions. Methods A cross-sectional survey of female university students was conducted in Nanjing, China, from February to March 2023. To assure the representativeness of the sample, a technique of stratified proportional sampling, PPS sampling, and convenience sampling was utilized. A total of 1124 valid samples were acquired from female university students in 15 comprehensive universities. The data were mined and analysed by SPSS (version 24.0) and AMOS (version 24.0) software. Results Overall female university students’ fertility intentions are low at this stage, with more than half (53.55%) of them having no clear desire to have children. The level of feminist identity significantly negatively affected the Intensity of desire to have children (-0.32) and child-number desires (-0.7). Psychosocial factors had a greater degree of influence on fertility intentions. The direct effect of the level of feminist identity and the perception of fertility hindrances on childbearing desires was -0.63 and -0.50 respectively, and the direct effect of the perception of fertility supports on childbearing intentions was 0.79. Conclusion The level of feminist identity is significantly and negatively related to childbearing desires. Psychosocial factors have a greater degree of influence on fertility intentions, with the level of feminist identity, the perception of fertility hindrances and the perception of fertility supports all significantly impacting fertility intentions. The findings of this study emphasise the importance of the government providing a full range of social security and employers providing better employee benefits to promote a fertility-friendly society.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18121-9Female university studentsFertility intentionPsychosocial factors |
| spellingShingle | Penghao Qiao Yiming Li Yixuan Song Xi Tian Female university students’ fertility intentions and their psychosocial factors BMC Public Health Female university students Fertility intention Psychosocial factors |
| title | Female university students’ fertility intentions and their psychosocial factors |
| title_full | Female university students’ fertility intentions and their psychosocial factors |
| title_fullStr | Female university students’ fertility intentions and their psychosocial factors |
| title_full_unstemmed | Female university students’ fertility intentions and their psychosocial factors |
| title_short | Female university students’ fertility intentions and their psychosocial factors |
| title_sort | female university students fertility intentions and their psychosocial factors |
| topic | Female university students Fertility intention Psychosocial factors |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18121-9 |
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