The relationship between familial and friendship networks and ideal fertility among rural women

Iranian women's fertility has experienced a remarkable change in recent decades. Ideal fertility is one of the most important predictors of future fertility. The ideal fertility is one of those behaviors that will affect by social environment and the attitude of important others towards fertility. Hence, in this study an attempt was made to investigate the relationship between attitude of important others in women's social network and their ideal fertility.

This was cross sectional study. A self-designed questionnaire was used to collect data.  A total of 1247 married women, using stratified random sampling were surveyed in rural areas of Fars province in 2015.

The findings indicated that the mean ideal number of children for women surveyed was 2.5. The analysis showed that among demographic and socio-economic characteristics, education and religion had a significant impact on the ideal number of children. The findings also indicated that the attitude of husband, mother and friends towards the ideal number of children had the most important and significant impact on ideal fertility among women living in rural respectively.

A remarkable part of women's attitude towards childbearing will form in their family and social environment. The findings suggest that demographic and socio-economic characteristics no longer could be the most important determinants of childbearing. It seems that at present childbearing has shifted from individual-biological behavior to social behavior. Iranian women modify their attitude towards childbearing and even shape it in their familial and friendship networks.