Analysis of social capital and fertility in urban regions of Sabzevar

This paper investigates the relationship between social capital of married women and their fertility as well as distribution of fertility along urban regions. For this purpose, a sample of 384 women aged 20-50 were interviewed in Sabzevar. The index of dependent variable was CEB. Social capital concept was operationalized through its objective component – formal membership in social networks. Some other independent variables such as using mass media, education, income, job state and birthplace were studied. Results of multivariate analysis show that variables including women education and membership in formal groups were used in the regression model. These variables explained 20 percent of dependent variable variance. It is notable that the impact of education on dependent variable was negative while the other noted variable had a positive impact on dependent variable. Furthermore there is a significant relationship between urban regions and fertility, that is higher socio-economic urban regions, has lower fertility.