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Volume 11, Issue 2 (Summer 2024)                   J Prevent Med 2024, 11(2): 142-151 | Back to browse issues page

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Dabiri F. Attitudes Towards Childbearing in Married People Living in Bandar Abbas, South of Iran. J Prevent Med 2024; 11 (2) :142-151
URL: http://jpm.hums.ac.ir/article-1-774-en.html
Attitudes Towards Childbearing in Married People Living in Bandar Abbas, South of Iran
Fatemeh Dabiri *
Department of Midwifery, Mother and Child Welfare Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran.
Keywords: Attitude, Childbearing, Married persons
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Introduction
Reduced childbearing rate is one of the challenges in the world including Iran. One of the reasons for this decrease is the change in the attitude of people towards having children; the parents no longer have the desire to have more children. Among the reasons for having negative attitude towards childbearing in Iran can be the concern about the future. There is a 50% decrease in childbearing rate in Iran. Several studies have been conducted regarding the attitude towards childbearing and related factors in men and women in Iran and almost the same results have been reported. For example, in a study conducted in Tehran City in 2014, about 62.3% of married people did not want to have children. In a study conducted in 2012 on couples about to get married in Urmia city, only 18.2% of men and 9.6% of women had tendency to have children. According to the population and housing census 2015, Hormozgan Province has also faced a decrease in childbearing rate in urban areas. Since there was no study in this field in Bandar Abbas City, south of Iran. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the attitude of married people living in Bandar Abbas City towards childbearing and find the related factors.

Methods
This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted in a period of 4 months from July to October 2022. Using a convenience sampling method, 348 married men and women with a child at least 24 months old, referring to comprehensive health centers in Bandar Abbas City were selected. The inclusion criteria were: Willingness to participate in the study, age 18-50 years, ability to read and write in Farsi and complete the questionnaire, Iranian nationality, having a child at least 24 months old. The exclusion criteria were: Having a child from a previous marriage or incomplete return of the questionnaire. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to survey attitudes. The questionnaire had 22 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 to 5 (completely agree, agree, no idea, disagree, completely disagree). The total score was in a range of 22-110. Scores below 50% of the total score were considered as negative attitude and above 50% of the total score as positive attitude. The data were analyzed in SPSS software, version 26 using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and chi-square test.

Results
Among 348 people participated in this study, 198 were women and 150 were men. The mean age of women was 29±6 years and the mean age of men was 32±5 years. Table 2 presents the mean scores of attitude for men and women.


The results of chi-square test showed that in overall, the positive attitude towards childbearing in women (64.7%) was significantly higher than in men (53.1%) (P<0.001). There was no significant relationship between the attitude of people (both women and men) with the variables of educational level, occupation, religion, and economic status. The most important reasons for the negative attitude or unwillingness to have children again included worry about the child’s future (72.3%), economic problems after the birth of the next child (64.5%) and lack of suitable housing for having more children (58.3%). It should be noted that 78.8% of married people said that they are interested in becoming parents.

Conclusion
All married people in our study were interested in having children and becoming parents, and having children was considered a value, and the joy of having children was their strongest explanation for the desire to have children However, in overall, their attitude towards childbearing or having more children was negative, and this negative attitude was more in men than in women. The most important reasons for this cause were economic issues and worry about the future after the birth of the next child.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of  Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran (Code: IR.HUMS REC.1400.191).

Funding
This article was financially supported by Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran.

Conflicts of interest
The author declared no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to express her gratitude to the midwife colleagues at Bandar Abbas Comprehensive Health Centers who assisted in the implementation of this study.


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Type of Study: Orginal | Subject: Midwifery
Received: 2024/07/1 | Accepted: 2024/09/14 | Published: 2024/07/1
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