Relationship between Marital Satisfaction and Ideal Fertility of Suburban Women of Bandar Abbas City

Fertility in the country has reached below the replacement level, which has attracted the attention of politicians. Ideal fertility can predict actual fertility. Achieving ideal fertility can increase the current level of fertility. Marital satisfaction is one of the important determinants of fertility. The present study endeavors to investigate the effect of marital satisfaction on ideal fertility.

The present study was conducted quantitatively with the survey method. For this purpose, 379 married women aged 15 to 49 living in the suburbs of Bandar Abbas were surveyed. Sampling was performed by multi-stage cluster method. A questionnaire was used to collect data.

Women's marital satisfaction and the ideal number of children had a positive and significant correlation. The increase in the duration of marriage was correlated with the increase in the ideal number of children. The difference in the average ideal number of children by the education level of women was significant. The average ideal number of children of Sunni women was more than that of Shia women and women belonging to Fars, Lor, Turk and Arab ethnicities were less than women of other ethnicities. The results of multivariate regression showed that the increase in women’s marital satisfaction leads to an increase in the ideal number of children.

Planning to increase marital satisfaction of couples can help to achieve ideal fertility. Ideal fertility research can mean increasing the current level of total fertility in the country. Therefore, in the new population policies, along with encouraging policies to increase fertility, serious attention should also be paid to the family, spouse relationships and marital satisfaction.