A Study on the Factors Influencing the Space between Marriage and Having Children (Case Study: Married Women of 20-49 in Isfahan)

Introduction In recent years, many researchers have tried to answer questions about changes in fertility. According to time and place conditions and abilities, they have presented research results to the scientific society. Despite these studies, however, no convincing answer can be given to the questions on how these rapid changes in fertility have taken place in recent years. Also, a relative understanding of each factor influencing fertility changes, specifically those influencing the space between marriage and having children needs more study. This research aims answering these questions so that hopefully a part of the void in this field will be filled. In most studies of in fertility the main variable has been the number of children present and attempts have been made to find the factors influencing the increase of number of children through examining family's different population, social, and financial factors; so in the present research we have tried to test several hypotheses through combining the current popular viewpoints in the field of giving birth to children and examining social, financial and population factors influencing dependent variables under study. Also according to statistical standards married women of 20-49 in Isfahan have been chosen as the population of study. Material and Methods Research framework is designed according to subject, sociological theories (modernism theory, economy and fertility theories, exchange theory, social gradation theory, post-materialistic values theory, particularized theology theory) and schools related to this field, and ultimately research hypotheses were extracted: there is a meaningful relationship between variables such as women's education, women's marriage age, the level of traditionalism, woman's religious tendencies, man's religious tendencies, family's income, family's social class (high or low classes), woman's power in the family and delay in having children. Also, this delay in having children seem to differ among working and not working women. The present research is a survey which used a questionnaires in 1390 to study Isfahani women. To be more specific, the research population consisted of all married women of 20-49 from all social ranks and levels in the city of Isfahan, whose number, according to Isfahan municipality's website is 413739 in the year 1390. Cochran sampling method was used to calculate sample's size. Three categories out of 14 districts were chosen through multi-level cluster sampling as rich districts (5), average districts (3) and poor districts (7). Then in each category the size of sample was divided by the number of districts chosen, and the number of questionnaires to be administered was extracted. With a sample size of 384, the number of questionnaires to be in each district was estimated. Overall, 430 questionnaires were administered, and 405 were flawlessly returned. Also in each district three blocks were chosen randomly and we went to all houses in person until all questionnaires were completed. In each house from married women of 20-49 one was chosen randomly and the questionnaire was answered by her. Indexes used in previous research were used to design the questionnaire. To reach acceptable validity, expert sociologists saw the questionnaire for content validity. To make sure of the research instrument’s reliability, Cronbach alpha coefficient was used. Cronbach alpha coefficient was above 0.7 which is acceptable. Discussion of Results and Conclusions: Age classification with the average of 26 years old shows that most responders lean towards middle age. When it comes to level of education, most responders had high-school diploma (38.7%). And about 0.7% were illiterate. 70.4% of responders were housekeepers and the rest were working in various jobs. The highest income of responders was above 2000000 Tomans and the lowest was zero, and family’s monthly costs were at most 1500000 Tomans and at least 100000 Tomans. Research results show that delay in having children is dependent on these variables: woman’s power in the family, education level, age, religious tendencies, family’s income and family’s social-financial status. Among these, age and woman’s power in the family had direct relationships with fertility and the woman’s-power-in-family variable is more in accordance with the three theories mentioned in research’s framework, specifically modernism theory, social gradation theory and post-materialistic values theory. Research’s analytic model consists of nine hypotheses from which two could pass the rejection test. Results from the present research are as follow: The hypothesis that speaks of negative and meaningful relationship between age and delay in having children is among the hypotheses that could pass the rejection test. The other was the hypothesis about the existence of meaningful relationship between woman’s power in the family and delay in having children. But other hypotheses could not pass the rejection test. Results show that despite research hypotheses there is no meaningful relationship between education, working, traditionalism, women’s religious tendencies, men’s religious tendencies, income and family’s economic-social status. In the present research to delicately examine the relationship between factors influencing the space between marriage and having children, not only did the effects of independent variables on delay in having children were examined and evaluated, but also multi-variable regression analyses of delay in having children with control variables’ presence were investigated. Regression results show that multiple correlation coefficient among dependent and independent variables is 2.50 and based on F and regression meaningfulness level their relationship is at a low-meaningful level. Coefficient of determination (R2) shows that 0.063 of delay in having children variance is explained by independent variables. So the most important finding of this research is that there is a negative and meaningful relationship between woman’s age at marriage and delay in having children with the rate of r=(-0.128), due to the meaningfulness level estimated the hypothesis is confirmed, meaning that when women’s age at marriage is higher, delay in having children is lower. We suggest the following recommendation: 1- Instruction and emphasis on marriage at the proper age for the youth 2- Instruction and emphasis on having children at the proper age 3- Instruction and proper education to create understanding in marital life 4- Strengthening women’s different abilities to manage life in different aspects such as education, working, marital life, children up-growing, etc. 6- Conducting more research to examine factors influencing the space between marriage and having children in Isfahan province and other crowded provinces of the country 7- Conducting research on the effects of woman’s power in the family and its effects on delay in having childre