How attitudes, perceived norms and perceived control influence couples' decisions to have a child

While most research on fertility planning is conducted at the individual level, this paper focuses on the couple, the unit into which most children are born in Europe. We focus on the decision to have a second child, the critical decision if fertility rates are to rise to replacement or near-replacement levels, and seek to extend modelling of couples’ fertility intentions by including partners’ social psychological cognitions as well as directly measurable economic and demographic characteristics. The social psychological model used in these studies is the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The countries under study are Bulgaria and Italy