Correlates of desire for children among women

Abstract

Objective: To describe levels of desire for children and identify factors influencing women’s desire for children (DFC). Design: Descriptive correlational study. Setting: Participants were recruited from a Qualtrics online panel. Participants: 228 women from the following nations: Columbia, South America, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Honduras, India, Nigeria, Philippines, United Kingdom, and the USA. Methods: DFC was measured using the Modified Index of Parenthood Motivation (MIPM), a 14-item self-reporting tool, and the Motives Toward Parenthood Scale (MTPS), a 30-item tool with four subscales. Results: MIPM was related to education levels, employment status, the number of children she had, and her parity. One-way ANOVA revealed significant relationships between MIPM with race and nationality. As shown in Mean DFC Scores by Nationality, post hoc tests revealed significant differences in mean MIPM scores when comparing Colombians to Nigerians, Ghanaians to both Colombians and Honduran participants, and finally, significant differences in mean MIPM scores when comparing between Philippine and Colombian, as well as Honduran participants. Subjective norms, consequences, and individual costs mean scores were below midpoints. Conclusion: Participants with increased DFC had increased education, were employed, had more children, and had been pregnant more times than participants with decreased DFC. Women who identified as Black had significantly greater DFC than those who identified as White or Hispanic. Women from Nigeria, Ghana, and the Philippines had significantly greater DFC than participants from Colombia and Honduras. Participants disagreed with subjective norms but agreed with the positive consequences of motherhood.