Ricerc@Sapienza

In Western European societies below fertility replacement level has encouraged research on individual fertility intentions. However, how its role has changed throughout the different stages of the demographic transitions has been largely under-researched, partly due to the lack of adequate data. Italy and Mexico provide a good case for the study of fertility intentions, with Italy having completed the fertility transition and Mexico having geographical areas which are at different stages of the demographic transition.

This paper applies the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to find out the predictors of fertility intentions in Romania, a low-fertility country. We analyse how attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control relate to the intention to have a child among childless individuals and one-child parents. Principal axis factor analysis confirms which items proposed by the Generation and Gender Survey (GGS 2005) act as valid and reliable measures of the suggested theoretical socio-psychological factors.