The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the attitude towards childbearing of married aged 20–30 Turkish women who are not yet mothers: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only changed physical health and the economy, but also changed plans for the future with its impact on social status and mental health. Changes in fertility preferences in many countries are also part of this influence. We aimed to evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on attitude toward the childbearing in women.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted on married aged 20–30 Turkish women who are not yet mothers, between January and June 2022, using Google forms. The questionnaire consisted of the sociodemographic data form, The Attitude towards Fertility and Childbearing Scale, and the Fear of COVID-19 Scale. In addition, women were asked about their exposure to COVID-19 and the severity of their illness.

Results

Only one-third of participants said they would like to have children in the next year; 61.2% would consider them later, while 4.5% did not. Common reasons for not intending to have children were “it is early to become a mother (34%)”, “economic difficulties (25.3%)”, and “career plans (16%)”. The fear of COVID-19 scale score, with an arithmetic mean of 16.8 ± 5.5, was found to be significantly lower in women who did not want to have children in the next year than in women who wanted to have children ( p = 0.042). Except for the profession, there was no significant difference between the COVID-19 fear scores by the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics.

Conclusions

Among the married aged 20–30 Turkish women who are not yet mothers, the rate of those who intend to childbearing was found still low. The main reason for women who did not want to have children in the next year was that they thought it was too early to have a child. Besides low fear of COVID-19 scale scores; economic concerns and career plans, which came in second and third place in the reason list, showed that the fear of infected with SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic did not affect the women’s attitudes toward fertility.