未婚青年的子女價值與生育期望探討

Abstract

本研究旨在探討未婚青年的子女價值與生育期望。研究採方便取樣的方式進行調查，在台北縣市與花蓮縣市兩地共回收有效問卷520份。研究以「性別角色態度量表」、「生育酬賞量表」、「生育代價量表」、「生育期望量表」及「個人基本資料」為研究工具收集資料進行分析，所得資料以SPSS 11.5版進行處理分析，以描述統計、t考驗、單因子變異數分析、卡方考驗、皮爾遜積差相關、多元迴歸、區別分析進行統計考驗。分析結果如下：

一、未婚青年生育期望之分析： （一）理想子女數 1.半數未婚青年期望生育2名子女，但亦有一成不想生育任何子女 2.男女生育期望大不同，未婚男性對理想子女數的期待顯著高於未婚女性 3.未婚青年的性別角色態度普遍較現代化、較平權 4.未婚青年愈認同生育酬賞價值，其理想子女數愈多；未婚青年愈認同生育代價，其理想子女數愈少 5.未婚青年愈認同「親密情感連繫」的生育酬賞價值，其理想子女數愈多 （二）子女性別偏好 1.未婚青年普遍認為「生男生女一樣好」 2.未婚青年年齡愈大、或持有傳統性別角色態度，愈無所謂性別偏好 3.子女價值之生育酬賞及生育代價的「生存環境」可有效區別性別偏好

二、未婚青年子女價值之分析： （一）生育酬賞 1.未婚青年顯著較認同「個人情感層面」的生育酬賞價值 2.未婚男性顯著較女性認同生育子女是為了「傳宗接代與生命延續」、「養兒防老」、「社會地位」與「道德價值」 3.未婚青年顯著較不認同「家族結構層面」的生育酬賞價值 4.未婚青年的「親密情感連繫」、「道德價值」會因宗教信仰不同而有顯著差異存在 （二）生育代價 1.多數未婚青年認為生育子女要付出相當代價 2.未婚女性顯著較男性認同生育子女會有「精神負擔與教養責任」與「經濟問題」 3.宗教信仰為道教的未婚青年在「生存環境」的認同程度顯著高於民間信仰與無宗教信仰的未婚青年 4.未婚青年生長在折衷家庭較核心家庭重視「生存環境」的子女價值The purposes of this study are to investigate what unmarried early adults think of children value and fertility expectancy. Convenient sampling is used in this study with 520 eligible questionnaires in total from Taipei City , Taipei County, and Hua-lian County. The instruments used for data collection and analysis are sex role attitude scale, fertility reward scale, fertility cost scale, fertility expectancy scale and demographic information. All statistics are computed by the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA), chi-square test, Person’s product-moment correlation, multiple regression and discriminant analysis are utilized to evaluate and analyze between factors. The results indicated as follows:

A. The analysis for fertility expectancy among unmarried early adults: 1. Ideal number of children （1）About half of unmarried early adults expect to give birth to two children whereas ten percent of the respondents have no intention to bear any child. （2）There is a significant discrepancy for fertility expectancy between unmarried men and women. Unmarried males have higher expectancy for ideal number of children than unmarried females. （3）Unmarried early adults’ sex role attitude is significantly higher than theoretical midpoint, that means unmarried early adults are tend to have modernized and equal sex role attitude. （4）Results from multiple regression suggest that the unmarried early adults recognize more fertility rewards, the larger ideal number of children they expected to have. Unmarried early adults identify themselves with more fertility costs, the smaller ideal number of children they expect to have. （5）Unmarried early adults who more recognized “keeping close relationship” as fertility reward expect to have larger ideal number of children. 2. Gender preference for children （1）Unmarried early adults have no gender preference for giving birth – boys and girls are both good. （2）The older or having sex role attitude traditionally unmarried early adults are, the less they seem to care about the gender preference issue. （3）Fertility reward and fertility cost of “living environment” can efficiently discriminant the gender preference.

B. The analysis for children value among unmarried early adults: 1. Fertility rewards （1）Unmarried early adults’ “personal affection fertility reward” is significantly higher than theoretical midpoint. （2）Compared with unmarried females, unmarried males significantly recognize that fertility is for the purpose of “continuing the family life”, “raising sons to support one in one’s old age”, “social status”, and “moral value”. （3）Unmarried early adults do not significantly recognize fertility reward when it comes to maintain “family and kinship structure”. （4）There is a significant discrepancy for unmarried early adults who have different religious beliefs between “keeping close bound” and “moral value”. 2. Fertility costs （1）The majority of unmarried early adults believe that they had to pay costs for bearing children. （2）Compares to unmarried males, unmarried females significantly recognize bearing children would accompany “psychological burden and educational responsibility” and “financial problems”. （3）Unmarried male Taoist believers significantly recognize more than those unmarried folklore believers or atheists when it comes to the cost of living environment. （4）Unmarried early adults who grow up in joint families, children value of the “living environment cost” more than those growing up in nuclear families.