An Exploration of Individual, Familial, and Cultural Factors Associated with the Value of Children among Taiwanese Young Adults

Abstract

Because of the extra-low fertility in Taiwan, much attention has been paid to the causal mechanisms accounting for childbearing intention and behavior. Despite the popularity of the economic approach in explaining the fall in fertility, social and psychological factors are still considered to affect young adults’ decisions upon marriage and parenthood. The varying values attached to children have been documented as crucial reasons for having or not having children. Hence, the main purposes of this study are to explore the meaning and dimensions of the value of children perceived by Taiwan’s youth adults and to investigate how the major dimensions of VOC were associated with socio-demographic, familial relational, and cultural-ideological factors. Data are taken from 2550 young people aged 30–33 years, a cohort sample from the Taiwan Youth Project collected in 2017. Through the factor analyses, two dimensions of VOC are extracted, with emotional VOC being valued more than instrumental VOC. The multivariate analyses indicate that the variations in emotional VOC and instrumental VOC are significantly related to individual characteristics, cultural and ideological factors. More importantly, this study demonstrates how elite education has intersected with gender in shaping young adults’ values that attribute to having children. Since the VOC gender gap widens as education selectivity rises, it could explain the tendency toward late and less family formation for better-educated Taiwanese women.