A meta-analysis of factors related to fertility attitudes, desires, and childbearing intentions in Iranian studies

This paper uses a meta-analysis to comparatively evaluate the factors related to fertility attitudes, desires, and intentions in Iranian studies. The analysis is based on 26 studies, 16 of which are about fertility desires and intentions, and 10 are about childbearing attitudes. The results suggest that several factors have negative effect on fertility desires and intentions such as: education; marriage age; number of children; social-economic participation; individualism; attitude to employment; foreign media and the internet. Age; rural living; income; religiosity; social protection; number of siblings; and life quality have positive effect on fertility desires and intentions. Among these factors, individualism (-0/296) and number of children (-0/224) have the most effect. The results also suggest that income and age difference between spouses have positive effect on childbearing attitude, whereas, cultural investment, education, social-economic status, age, and virtual networks have negative effect on childbearing attitudes, in which income (0/272) and age (0/258) have the most effect. Therefore, there are a lot of social factors which play important roles in determining childbearing in Iran and therefore, social planners need to pay attention to them.