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Fertility intentions among the working population of Dalian City born between 1980 and 1989

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2021

Hongyan Qiu ,
Qun Zhang ,
Jin Zhang ,
Qingshan Wang ,
Lihong Liu ,
Jie Yang  and
Liyan Hou Open the ORCID record for Liyan Hou [Opens in a new window]
Hongyan Qiu
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health and Management, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China Key Laboratory of Environmental Factors and Chronic Disease Control, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China
Qun Zhang
Affiliation:
Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, Dalian Municipal Center for Disease Control & Prevention, Dalian, China
Jin Zhang
Affiliation:
Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, Dalian Municipal Center for Disease Control & Prevention, Dalian, China
Qingshan Wang
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
Lihong Liu
Affiliation:
College of Basic Medical Sciences, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
Jie Yang
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
Liyan Hou*
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

In October 2015, the Chinese Government announced that the one-child policy had finally been replaced by a universal two-child policy. China’s universal two-child policy is highly significant because, for the first time in 36 years, no one in an urban city is restricted to having just one child. This cross-sectional study was conducted to explore future fertility intentions and factors influencing individual reproductive behaviour (whether to have two children) in Dalian City. A total of 1370 respondents were interviewed. The respondents’ mean ideal number of children was only 1.73, and urban respondents’ sex preference was symmetrical. A total of 19.0% of the respondents were unmarried, 64.5% were married and had childbearing experience and only 6.3% of married respondents had two children. Among the 1370 participants, 30.4% stated that they would have a second child, while 69.6% refused to have a second child in the future. Binary logistic regression analysis (Model 1) showed that the following characteristics were associated with having only one child in the future: being female, being older, having a lower education level, being born in Dalian, having a lower family income and reporting one child as the ideal number of children. Model 2 (comprising only respondents with childbearing experience) showed that respondents who were female, had a lower family income and were unable to obtain additional financial support from parents were more likely to intend to stick at one child. In addition, respondents’ ideal number of children and childbearing experiences had a significant influence on future fertility intentions. These results suggest that fertility intentions and reproductive behaviours are still below those needed for replacement level fertility in Dalian City. China’s policymakers should pay more attention to these factors (socioeconomic characteristics, economic factors, desired number of children and childbearing experiences) and try to increase individual reproductive behaviour.

Keywords

Fertility intentionsUniversal two-child policyFertility behaviour
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , May 2022 , pp. 533 - 544
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

#

These authors contributed equally to the study.

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