Background Although there is extensive evidence that social interactions within different types of social ties affect fertility decisions and behavior both in western and nonwestern settings, there is no available data to evaluate the impact within the Middle Eastern context, leading to difficulty in explaining fully the ways in which interactions in personal networks influence fertility behavior among the region's populations. Aims This study aims to explore the mechanisms through which social ties affect fertility decisions in Turkey. We examine various social mechanisms such as social support, social pressure,social influence and social learning to explore how and why these mechanisms exert influence on women's fertility decision‐making processes. Method Using semi‐structured interviewing (N = 51),the study draws on mothers' retrospective accounts of the childbearing process and current intentions for higher order births. Results Our findings point to the substantial role played by family networks in women's fertility behavior in Turkey. While family and nonfamily network partners stimulate social pressure and social influence respectively, social support exclusively operates through family members. Also, the majority of social learning occurs within the family. Our findings also show how kin and non‐kin network partners operate through these mechanisms and differentially influence specific stages of the fertility process such as the transition to parenthood and parity progression. Conclusion The overarching finding of this study is that the personal networks have effects on fertility decisions in Turkey. Our findings pointed to the role of the social and cultural context of the Middle Eastern setting where childbearing is a substantive issue that matters to extended family and the community. An important contribution of this study is that it is the first of its kind to explore social mechanisms vis‐à‐vis fertility decision‐making in the Middle Eastern context and provides a nonwestern and comparative perspective to the research in this area.
No abstract
Research has shown that interviewers can significantly affect survey respondents’ reported attitudes and behaviors. Several interviewer characteristics have been found to partially explain variation in respondents’ answers across interviewers, particularly when questions are related to interviewers’ observable characteristics such as gender, race, and age. However, less is known about if and how interviewers’ religious appearance and religious attitudes affect survey responses and, more specifically, reports about religious attitudes. Collecting accurate information on religious attitudes is important, given the sensitivity of this information across the globe and the growing interest in understanding religious perceptions and misconceptions. This paper is the first to investigate (a) the independent effects and the interplay between interviewers’ religious veil status and interviewers’ religious attitudes on respondents’ reported religious attitudes and (b) the magnitude of the interviewer variance explained by interviewers’ religious characteristics. The data comes from a nationally representative survey of religious and political attitudes in Tunisia carried out in 2013. Data from the survey also includes information about interviewers’ characteristics (including veil status for females) and interviewers’ own religious attitudes based on their responses to the same survey questions asked of respondents. Results showed that respondents interviewed by veiled female interviewers reported greater religiosity than respondents interviewed by unveiled female interviewers. Equally important were interviewers’ religious attitudes, which also independently affected the corresponding attitudes of respondents and explained a substantial percentage of the between-interviewer variance for several outcomes. The effect of interviewers’ attitudes on respondents’ attitudes was not stronger among veiled interviewers. Our investigation also revealed that the effect of interviewers’ attitudes on respondents’ reported attitudes operated somewhat differently for male and female respondents depending on the specific survey items. Future studies are needed to explore the mechanism(s) underlying these effects.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.