Socioeconomic and Emotional Predictors of Decision Making for Timing Motherhood Among Iranian Women in 2013

BACKGROUND: Decision making for timing motherhood is one of the vital aspects of reproductive health. Separating sexual relationship from having a child has led to a different and unprecedented lifestyle in human history. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine the socioeconomic and emotional factors predicting decision making for timing motherhood among Iranian women using the statistical softwares of IBM SPSS 21 and LISREL 8.8. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study enrolled 820 primiparous women from different hospitals across the country using multistage random sampling method in 2013. The tools of the study were enrich marital satisfaction, socioeconomic status, perceived social support, hopefulness, and life regard index. The data was analyzed using SPSS 20 and LISREL 8.8. RESULTS: The results revealed that among direct pathways, marital age (β = 0.62) was the most effective predictor of timing motherhood. The hopefulness had an inverse association with timing motherhood through inverse effect of marital satisfaction. Moreover, marital satisfaction (β = -0.09), perceived social support (β = -0.09), and life regard index (β = 0.01) had an inverse effect on timing motherhood. Marital satisfaction had a non-causal effect of 0.024. CONCLUSIONS: Marital age, and socioeconomic status had a direct association, and hopefulness and marital satisfaction had an indirect one with Iranian women’s decision for timing motherhood. Therefore, this is the responsibility of policy-makers and healthcare providers to advise women by providing appropriate interventions and facilities.