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In many countries, couples are increasingly delaying childbearing, due to conflicts between available time for childbearing and the time required to acquire optimal conditions for childbearing including financial, occupational and relational stability. Despite the growing importance of future time perspective for understanding age-related changes, no research has examined this construct in relation to a person’s reproductive life. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the impact of reproductive future time perspective and the predictive power of it on childbearing desire and intention.
Methods:
This is a cross-sectional online survey study conducted between May and June 2022 using convenience sampling. The sample consists of 536 Hong Kong citizens (Mean age=32.56±7.23). The majority was female (86%), diploma or Bachelor degree holders (60%), had a partner (75%), childless (71%), and was not diagnosed with infertility or had a partner who was diagnosed with infertility (63%). The 10-item Future Time Perspective Scale was adapted by adding the word reproductive to each item to measure participants’ reproductive future time perspective. Each item was rated on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (does not apply at all) to 7 (applies completely). Self-constructed items regarding infertility, childbearing intention and desire were included. All statistical tests were two-sided and conducted at the 5% significance level. An exploratory factor analysis was performed. Eigenvalue, percentage of explained variance, factor loading and Cronbach’s alpha were calculated for each factor.
Results:
Exploratory factor analysis revealed two distinct dimensions of reproductive future time perspective, namely, 7-item perceived opportunities and extension (α=.91) as well as 3-item perceived constraints (α=.73). Path analysis using robust maximum likelihood estimation results showed that age and infertility were significant positive predictors of perceived constraints (ps < .01), but only age was a significant negative predictor of perceived opportunities and extension. Both perceived opportunities and extension and perceived constraints were found to significantly predict higher childbearing intention and desire (ps < .001).
Conclusions and Implications:
The finding showed that fertility plan was motivated by both perceived opportunities and extension as well as perceived constraints. People who focus on abundant time and opportunities in their reproductive future with fewer perceived constraints will have a stronger yearning for childbearing and becoming parents. Their positive future expectancy may orient them to increase their effort in engaging proactive childbearing behaviors to ensure future fertility. This also shows that the reproductive future time perspective is an interplay between biological (age) and psychological (perceived opportunities and constraints) aspects.
The development of the Reproductive Future Time Perspective Scale has extended the application of the future time perspective to fertility context and offers a feasible tool to assess people’s awareness of the time remaining, opportunities and constraints in their childbearing years. Future research may apply this scale to different samples and across time to examine its validity. Moreover, given the delayed childbearing phenomenon is expected to continue in Hong Kong, these findings call for an increased psychosocial education for long-term parenting planning and policies that address the psychological concerns regarding childbearing.