Attitude towards maternal identity and fertility intention: a study among women with at least one child in urban areas of Kashan city

Motherhood is an important aspect of women's life, which manifests itself with the two important functions of giving birth and nurture children. With the advent of modernity, becoming a mother and motherhood as the pre-defined main role of women has been questioned and redefined. Investigating the relationship between changes in the attitude towards maternal identity and women's fertility can be helpful in understanding the change of fertility in Iran. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between the attitude towards maternal identity and the number of intended fertility of married women aged 18-44 in the urban areas of Kashan city and with a quantitative approach and a descriptive-correlational nature. In this regard, a sample of 385 women with at least one child (with motherhood experience) referring to the health service centers of urban areas of Kashan were selected and investigated by multi-stage cluster sampling method. The validity of the research items was obtained through formal and confirmatory factor analysis. The reliability of the conceptual variables of the research was also confirmed with Cronbach's alpha. The results of the research show that the average of intended fertility is 2.2 in the women of the study. The score of the attitude towards maternal identity of the study women is higher than the expected average. This issue indicates the existence of a desire and a pleasant feeling towards the motherhood identity, in other words, it shows the priority and importance of the role of a motherhood compared to other roles of the women in the study. The results of multivariate analysis show that by controlling all the variables, the variable of attitude towards maternal identity positively and attitude towards gender equality and education have a negative effect on women's intention fertility. The lower the score of the attitude towards maternal identity (importance and priority of the mother's role) and the higher the score of the attitude towards gender equality, the less the number of intended fertility. Also, women with university education have less intend fertility. On the other hand, the findings indicate a statistically significant and effect relationship of gender equality variables and education on the attitude towards maternal identity of the studied women. According to the results of the research path analysis model, it can be said that the attitude towards maternal identity is related to the number of children intended by women in two direct ways and also as a mediator of the effect of gender equality variables and education. Therefore, according to the changes that are taking place in the mentioned components, it is suggested that the policy makers consider the expansion of facilities and support programs that lead to the reduction of the conflict between the components of empowerment and independence of women with maternal identity in the new demographic policies. Facilitation and support programs in the field of maternal identity are a way of valuing the authentic cultural foundation of Iranian society in this relation.