One-Child Parenthood and its Determinants in Iran

This research paper focuses on the key issue of one-child parenthood and examines its main patterns and determinants from a demographic perspective. The issue of one-child parenthood is identified as one of the most important components of the so-called process of “the transformation of demographic characteristics”. The literature review clearly indicates that while the general themes of fertility and childbearing have received a large body of studies in more recent years, it lacks substantially studies with specific focus on one-child parenthood. The present study not only contributes filling this research gap, but also is amongst the first studies focusing simultaneously on both sides of one-child parenthood: having one-child, wanting one-child. The results of this paper are based on a survey that includes 2557 married males and females aged 30 years and older residing in the selected rural and urban areas of Iran. The research results presented and discussed in this paper have shown that not only one-child parenthood is insignificantly accepted, but also the proportion of respondents ‘wanting one-child’ is almost half of the proportion of those ‘having one-child’. In sum, the conclusion of these research findings is that the one-child parenthood is overwhelmingly driven by socio-economic determinants rather than individual choices, suggesting the fundamental role of governmental policies targeted largely towards socio-economic and occupational provisions in order to enable individuals to go beyond the one-child parenthood.