Familial, Situational, and Attitudinal Determinants of Third-Birth Intentions and Their Uncertainty

For this study, we used data from the Finnish Womans Life Course and Family
Formation Survey to study the decision to have or not to have a third child among
women who had two children. Our results show that almost one half of the
respondents in our sample (n=636) desired to have three or more children, but only
19 per cent intended to have a third birth, while 30 per cent were uncertain about
their intentions. We also found that a considerable proportion of the respondents
had decided to stop childbearing at a lower parity than desired. To study what
determines womens decision to have a third child we estimated three logistic
regression models of the determinants of third-birth intentions and their uncertainty,
separately for all women at parity two and for those who desired to have three or
more children. The results indicate that the factors associated with the intention to
cease childbearing differ from those associated with the certainty of intention.
Familial and attitudinal factors, such as the quality of partnership, genders of the
existing children, and family values, were independently associated with womens
intentions to continue childbearing after two children or stop at parity two. However,
social and economic constraints made women hesitate with regard to their future
fertility plans.