فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

INTRODUCTION: Motivation is directly involved in women’s childbearing decision. Consideringthe lack of information about reproductive‑age women’s childbearing motivations with preferencesand actual child number in Iran, this study was conducted to determine the relationship betweenchildbearing motivations with the fertility preferences and actual child number of reproductive‑agewomen.MATERIALS AND METHODS: The participants in this descriptive–correlational study were 844reproductive‑age women (aged 15–49 years) who were married for the first time and came froma wide range of areas in Mashhad. Multistage and convenience samplings were applied and thedata were collected using Miller’s childbearing motivation and fertility preferences and actual childnumber questionnaire.RESULTS: The results of the study reveal that positive‑ and negative‑childbearing motivation werecorrelated with preferences (P < 0.001) but were not correlated with actual child number. Furthermore,the interactional variable derived by a combination of positive and negative motivations showed asignificant relationship with the ideal and actual child number (P < 0.05).CONCLUSIONS: Childbearing motivations affect the fertility preferences in reproductive‑age womenbut do not appear to have any influence on the actual child number. Furthermore, the interactionalvariables affect the ideal and actual child number.