Generational Differences of Demographic Attitudes in Iran

Abstract

This study examines generational considerations associated with demographic attitudes in Iran. The importance of such studies lies basically on the increasing pattern of the process so-called ‘the transformation of demographic characteristics”, which is also identified as one of the most important traits of the contemporary societies. In this line, this is the key research question in the present study: Do demographic attitudes depend on generational belonging? In other words, whether we are dealing with ‘generational gap’ or ‘generational convergence’ with respect to demographic attitudes? The research findings presented and discussed in this paper are based on a survey that includes 5200 males and females residing in the varying rural and urban areas of Iran. According to the results of this study, there are substantial generational similarities and disparities in attitudes towards the demographic components including women’s age at marriage, pronatalism, childbearing preferences, divorce and emigration. These varying patterns confirm two main conclusions: they not only sit well with a combined version of cohort replacement theory and intra-cohort changes theory, but also support the underlying fact that the demographic attitudes cannot be simply and merely explained through either generational gap or generational convergence. Key words: Generational considerations, demographic attitudes, generational gap, generational convergence, Iran