THE STUDY ON VALUE OF CHILDREN AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS OF MOTHER' S ROLE IN URBAN MARRIED WOMEN一The Effects of Fertility and Education on Value of Children and Childbearing Attitude
The aim of the study was to explore the effects of fertility and education on value of children and attitude to mother's roles in urban married women. A total of 124 samples were collected and categorized as four groups: mothers and non-mothers with high education (i.e., college education or higher), and mothers and non-mothers with low education (i.e., high school education or lower).Subjects were interviewed individually by using the VOC Questionnaire, the Childbearing Attitude Scales and the self-developed Chinese Child Value Scales. The main results are as follows:
1 .Emotional value of children was rated as an important reason of wanting to bear child, substantial-economical value and familial value of children were rated as unimportant reasons of having child. Mothers rated higher on the importance of emotion value than non-mothers did.
2. Psychological pressure was rated as an important reason for not wanting to bear child, while the disadvantages of having children in social life and relationship and the constraints in family conditions were not import reasons for not having child. Non-mothers who had no plan of bearing child rated higher on psychological pressure as the reason for not wanting child.
3. The effect of education was shown as subjects with high education rated higher on emotional value of children while those with low education rated higher on substantial-economical value. There was no significant effect of education in the ratings on the importance of reasons for not wanting to have child.
4. In the childbearing attitude measures, mothers were more positive than non-mothers in affection toward young children. Non-mothers were less positive in taking care of infant and dependence in pregnancy.
5. Significant correlations were detected between the VOC measure on emotional value and the childbearing measures on mother identification, affection toward young children and breastfeeding, which implies that positive mother identification, attitude to pregnancy and breastfeeding should also be important reasons for wanting to have child.
6. Emotional value is a moderate but significant predictor of the expected number of children.Individualism is a moderate but significant predictor of the ideal number of children.
7. The well-known Chinese traditional values of having children (e.g., "Bearing children shows your filial piety", "More children more happiness", etc.) were highly connected with substantial-economical value and familial value of children. Subjects generally disagreed to take those traditional norms as the reason for bearing child.
修改评论