Perceived consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and childbearing intentions in Poland

Objective: We aim to investigate how the perceived consequences of COVID-19 affect people's childbearing intentions in Poland. Background: With the pandemic having an impact on virtually all spheres of people's lives, some evidence already exists that it will lead to fertility postponement, as people are reluctant to make their reproductive choices in such uncertain times. Method: We analyse a nationally representative sample of 1000 respondents aged 18-49. In the sample, 234 respondents declared that they had intended to have a child before the outbreak of the pandemic and about 20% of them stated having postponed or foregone their intention because of COVID-19. We perform logistic regression analyses to verify which perceived consequences of the pandemic are most decisive for this choice. We supplement our analyses with insights from qualitative, open-ended question on the effects of the pandemic. Results: We find that people’s decision to postpone childbearing is related to respondents' perceived lower sense of financial security and worse mental well-being in the pandemic. In the model, where both factors are included, only mental well-being remains significant. Qualitative analyses point to several other factors important to fertility decisions in the pandemic, e.g., women’s fear of lonely childbirth. Conclusion: People’s decision to postpone childbearing because of COVID-19 is mostly related to pandemic-induced financial insecurity and this effect seems to be mediated by the psychological reaction to the situation.

Recent Trends in U.S. Childbearing Intentions

The U.S. period TFR has declined steadily since the Great Recession, to 1.73 children in 2018, the lowest level since the 1970s. This pattern could mean that current childbearing cohorts will end up with fewer children than previous cohorts or this same pattern could be an artifact of a tempo distortion if individuals are simply postponing births they plan to eventually have. In this research note, we use data on current parity and future intended births from the 2006-2017 National Survey of Family Growth to shed light on this issue. We find that total intended parity declined (from 2.26 in 2006-2010 to 2.16 children in 2013-2017), and the proportion of women intending to remain childless increased slightly. Decomposition indicated that the decline was not due to changes in population composition, but rather changes in the subgroup rates themselves. The decline in intended parity is particularly notable at young ages and among Latinxs. These results indicate that although tempo distortion is likely an important contributor to the decline in TFR, it is not the sole explanation: U.S. individuals are intending to have fewer children than their immediate predecessors, which may translate into a decline in cohort completed parity. However, the change in intended parity is modest and average intended parity remains above two children.

Didn’t Plan One but got One: Unintended and sooner-than-intended Parents in the East and the West of Europe

The realisation rates of short-term childbearing intentions are known to be consistently lower in post-socialist countries than in the rest of Europe. However, the East–West differences in the outcomes of intentions to postpone or forego (further) childbearing have not been previously examined. We employ two panel waves of the Generations and Gender Survey in six countries (three from Eastern and three from Western Europe), and, based on the short- and long-term fertility intentions expressed by respondents at the first survey wave, we classify the births occurring between two waves as intended, sooner-than-intended, or unintended. We find that in our study population of non-teenage respondents who had the same partner at both survey waves and a child between the two survey waves, between around 10% (Western European countries) and 30% (Eastern European countries) experienced an unintended or a sooner-than-intended birth. The East–West divide is largely driven by the share of unintended parents which is clearly higher in the post-socialist countries. However, the geographical pattern fades away once we control for the anticipated costs of having a child. Our study gives insight into East–West differences in attitudes to childbearing and into how they affect reproductive behaviour. It also offers methodological improvements of cross-national panel surveys designed to examine childbearing intentions that would allow for a more accurate assessment of childbearing intendedness.

The Role of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Childbearing Intentions in Iranian Women: A Path Analysis

Background: The novel Coronavirus disease is a newly-emerged global challenge that has rapidly spread throughout the world. The COVID-19 pandemic may lead to couples not being physically and mentally ready to assume a parenting role. Given the changes in reproductive behaviors and the lack of accurate information about childbearing factors during the Coronavirus pandemic, the present study investigates the role of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iranian couples’ childbearing intentions based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model.Methods: The present descriptive-analytical, cross-sectional, web-based study was conducted on 400 married Iranian women in their reproductive age. Sampling was carried out over four months from 12 July 2020 using official online social networks popular among the public. Data were collected using a demographic checklist and the researcher-made questionnaire entitled “Factors related to childbearing intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic”, which was designed based on the main constructs of the planned behavior model. Data were then analyzed in AMOS-24 using path analysis.Results: The mean age of the participants was 33.41 years. Testing the indirect relationships of the mediation model effect showed a positive relationship between knowledge (β = 0.226, p < .001) and subjective norms (β = 0.155, p = .001) about COVID-19. Anxiety about COVID-19 mediated the relationship of knowledge (β = .105, p = .009), attitude (β = -0.125, p = .002), subjective norms (β = .238, p < .001), and perceived behavioral control (β = .513, p < .001) about COVID-19 with childbearing intentions.Conclusions: Childbearing intentions had a direct relationship with knowledge, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control in relation to COVID-19, and COVID-19-induced anxiety had a mediating role among the TPB constructs for performing an intended behavior (childbearing desire). Designing appropriate interventions to increase childbearing desires through anxiety-reducing and relaxation techniques will prove more effective.

Trends in Female Workers’ Childbearing Intentions in South Korea

This study aimed to analyze trends of South Korean working women’s childbearing intentions to provide directions for strategies to increase South Korea’s birth rate. This study used the data generated by the Korean Longitudinal Panel Survey of Women and Families in South Korea from 2007 to 2016, and included 2,341 working women. This study showed that female workers’ intention to bear children is decreasing. In 2007, age and the number of children were considered in predicting the characteristics of those with childbearing intentions. In 2016, the provision of maternity leave at work, job satisfaction regarding relationships and communication, and work-family conflicts were added. When identifying the factors by category, the impact level of occupational factors increased, although the impact level of individual factors decreased. There should be a balance between work and family roles, and employers should provide ample maternity leave and promote an organizational culture that supports job satisfaction.