Some social and cultural characteristics and determinants of childbearing intentions

Sutay Yavuz, Hacettepe University

The modern life style, even so called postmodern cultural norms in terms of ‘second demographic transition’ prevails in urban and metropolitan cities, simultaneously with traditional life style, influential in mainly rural residence and in East region, in Turkey. The objective of this study is to scrutinize effect of social and cultural practices, particularly related to marriage formation patterns, on future chilbearing intentions of married women in Turkey. The legal standing of the marital unions, consanguinity between spouses, arranged marriages, brides’ money and living arrangement is also debated in relation to anthropology and sociology literature on these cultural traits. Determinants of 'desire for more children' are examined with multivariate statistical methods. The predictory variables, encompass social and cultural diversity, are categorised into four groups as individual, cultural, fertility and contextual. Quantitative part of the study is based on the latest TDHS-2003 ever married women data.