Analysis of variables affecting subsequent childbirth intention of mothers with infants: For mothers who use infant care daycare centers

Objectives This study investigates how the demographic characteristics, child characteristics, psychological characteristics, and social characteristics of mothers with infants affect mothers' intention to have subsequent births, identifies factors that can increase the effectiveness of policies to overcome low birth rates, and suggests support measures in the educational aspect. Methods After conducting a survey on 459 mothers of infant children using daycare centers specializing in infant care in Gyeonggi-do, frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, chi-square verification, and Hierarchical multiple regression analysis were performed with the SPSS 20.0 program. Results It was found that there were differences in subsequent childbirth intentions depending on the mother's demographic variables (personal: age, economic: homeownership), children (total number of children), and psychological (abnormal number of children) characteristics. The relative explanatory power of the mother's psychological and social characteristics that affect the intention to have a follow-up childbirth was found to be high in the following order: satisfaction with childcare services for social characteristics, parenting stress for psychological characteristics, emotional value for children, and ideal number of children. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that in order to encourage follow-up childbirth, educational support and policies should be established that reflect demographic characteristics such as the mother's age and number of children, as well as increased satisfaction with the use of specialized infant child care services, reduced parenting stress, and positive values toward children.