| چکیده انگلیسی مقاله |
Background: The importance of fertility as the most important factor in change of structure and size of a population has caused fertility and those factors which affect it to get a specific place among demographic studies. Since studying different population aspects, such as mortality, fertility, and immigration, may be an effective step toward designing and planning population programs and policies, the aim of this study was to determine those factors which affect the fertility behavior in various ethnic groups in Shahr-e-Kord.Methods: In this descriptive survey, 266 married women, who were 15-49 years old, were studied through stratified random sampling in Shahr-e-Kord. Participants were assessed by a questionnaire which was consisted of economic, social, fertility behavior, and cultural and ethnic parts. The questions were scored according to the Likert scale. The data were managed by SPSS software and analyzed by descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, statistical independence test, ANOVA, Kappa coefficient of agreement, and the generalized linear model.Findings: Among social factors, there was a significant relationship between the age of marriage and the number of children (P=0.000). Among cultural factors, the education (P=0.012) and tribal affiliation(P=0.005) affected the fertility behavior significantly. Among economic factors, there was a significant relationship between the husband's occupation (P=0.020) and ownership of the residence(P=0.022) with differences in the fertility behavior. The results showed that there was a relative agreement between the participants and their husbands on the desired number of children (K=0.547), and this agreement was slightly insignificant in the case of the repetition of fertility(P>0.05). There was a significant relationship between the cultural-ethnic factor and the fertility behavior; this systematic relationship was nonlinear and it was equal to 0.093 (P=0.000).Conclusion: Among the studied factors, cultural-ethnic factors had the most effect on the fertility behavior. The level of education and tribal affiliation were also effective in women of various ethnic groups. Among social factors, the age of marriage had a significant effect on the fertility behavior. Women training to enhance their knowledge and training can be an effective step in changing theirs attitudes about reproductive.Key Words: Fertility, Fertility behavior, Age of marriage, Family planning |