Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: May 14, 2025
Date Accepted: Dec 30, 2025
The Gendered Mediation Effects of Social Support on Fertility Intentions Among Childless Adults of Reproductive Age in China: A National Cross-Sectional Study Governance
ABSTRACT
Background:
China’s fertility rate, among the lowest globally (1.3 in 2020), poses significant demographic challenges. Despite policy interventions like the universal two-child policy, fertility rates remain stagnant, underscoring the need to explore psychosocial determinants of fertility intentions. While social support is recognized as a potential influence, its gendered mediation pathways and interactions with psychological factors like self-efficacy and conscientiousness remain underexplored.
Objective:
This study aimed to explore how social support impacts fertility intentions among Chinese adults aged 20–49, with an emphasis on gender-specific differences and the mediating roles of self-efficacy and conscientiousness.
Methods:
Data were obtained from a Psychology and Behavior Investigation of Chinese Residents. A decision tree model and mediation analysis were employed to assess the effects of social support on fertility intentions, as well as the roles of self-efficacy and conscientiousness while controlling for demographic factors.
Results:
The results showed that social support positively correlated with fertility intentions, with males having higher intentions than females after controlling for support levels and other confounders. For females, family support significantly influenced fertility intentions, whereas support from friends was more relevant for males. Additionally, self-efficacy was a significant mediator for males (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.042, 0.089, mediation proportion: 52.52%), and conscientiousness played a mediating role in females (95% CI: 0.003, 0.017, mediation proportion: 10.10%). Married females with strong family support exhibited higher fertility intentions than their unmarried counterparts.
Conclusions:
The findings suggest that enhancing targeted social support can increase fertility intentions, with implications for addressing demographic challenges. Tailored policies should prioritize family support for females and self-efficacy, as well as social support from friends for males.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.