The Cultural and Social Factors Affecting the Tendency to Childbearing

The current research aims to study cultural and social factors affecting the tendency of couples at the reproductive age to childbearing. The research is of applied-descriptive type and it has been done in a survey method. The statistical population consisted of all women of reproductive age and their husbands who lived in Behbahan city and villages of the Khuzestan Province. The data was collected through the researcher-made questionnaire. For the validity confirmation, the formal and content validity were used and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used for the reliability amounting to 0.70, which was acceptable. Data analysis was done using SPSS software and difference of avarages, one-way variance analysis, and regression. The findings showed that the variables of gender, residence status, ethnicity, couple's education, and the amount of use of contraceptives were effective on the tendency to childbearing, however there was no significant difference between the age of marriage of the couples and their age difference with the tendency to childbearing. Being influenced by the opinions of others, satisfaction with married life, hope for the future of Iran, and the religiousness of the couples were effective on the tendency of the couples to childbearing, but The importance of women to body shape and the amount of use of mass communication tools were not effective.