Childbearing Motivation in Iranian Engaged Couples: A Structural Equation Model

Background: Childbearing is considered to be one of the main purposes of marriage in Iranian culture. The aim of this study was to assess relationships among age of marriage, religious and educational levels, participation of couples in childbearing and finical status with childbearing motivation using structural equation model. Materials and Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of previous data; 450 young couples attending four healthcare centers of Mashhad, Iran, included in this study. Sampling method was convenience sampling. Structural equation modeling was performed using AMOS version 19.0. Model was tested using maximum likelihood. Goodness of fit of the model was evaluated based on the Chi-square to degree of freedom ratio (chi(2)/df), goodness-of-fit index (GFI), comparative fit index (CFI), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). Results: Mean age for women and men were 22.16 +/- 4.84 and 26.02 +/- 4.6 year-old, respectively. The result of our study showed that suggested childbearing motivation model was well fit with data (GFI=0.96; CFI=0.96; RMSEA=0.063, and chi(2)/df=4.51). Marriage age and educational level significantly negatively associated with childbearing motivation, respectively (standardized beta=-0.082, p=0.018), and (standardized beta=-0.222 and p<0.001). Religious level was positively significantly associated with positive motivation (standardized beta = 0.226 and p<0.001). Participation of couples in childbearing had a significantly strong positive motivation (standardized beta=0.56 and p<0.001). The R-squared value for childbearing motivation model was 0.34. Conclusion: The findings indicated that the couple's childbearing motivations were influenced by educational level, participation of couples in childbearing, marriage age and religious level.