Family-friendly policy and childbirth intention: Mediating effect of family life satisfaction

In recent decades, low fertility has become a new social risk that has caused changes in the demographic structure and in the role of social institutions. The causes of low fertility have been widely discussed in social studies from different perspectives, such as socio-environmental and personal environmental factors, as well as from the perspective of the government’s efforts with regard to family-friendly policies. However, previous research on low fertility focusing on the joint relationship among personal aspects, social aspects and government efforts has been scarce. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between the causes of low fertility and the additional birth intentions, with the specific focus on socio-environmental and personal environmental factors. To this end, we conducted a survey of 401 women aged 19 to 45 years old, living in the Jeon-buk Province, South Korea. The structural equation modeling was used to analyze the relationship between social environment factors, such as family-friendly system, family life satisfaction, husband’s participation in childcare, parenting stress and personal environmental factors and additional birth intention. The results showed that socio-environmental factors had no direct effect on additional birth intention; however, socio-environmental factors influenced birth intention through individual environmental factors.