Attitudes towards multi-child families and their relationship with fertility preferences and other characteristics

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to develop a scale for assessing attitudes towards multi-child families, to examine the structure of these attitudes and their relationship with beliefs about optimal, desired and actual family size, and other variables to assess the characteristics of the instrument. On the sample of 548 adult respondents, by performing Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) we identified the three-factor structure of attitudes: good life in multi-child families, deficient standard of living in multi-child families, and negative characteristics of multi-child family members. The created instrument is reliable and, as expected, related to the desired, optimal and actual number of children in a family. Respondents from large families appreciate more the good life in multi-child families. To the contrary, the perceived deficit of living standards in multi-child families and the negative characteristics of multi-child family members are reported in a lesser extent. The relationship with age, gender and education was not confirmed.