ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Policy
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1665360
Second birth intentions and its influencing factors among reproductive-aged women: A cross-sectional study conducted in Shandong Province, China
Provisionally accepted
Wenhui Cui1Xiuping Guo2Keqing Shi1Mengjun Cao1Zihan Zhou1Hongyan Hao1Ying Zhao1Hongjing Wang1*
Qiang Wang1*- 1Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, China
- 2QiHe People’s Hospital, Dezhou, China
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Aims: This study investigated second birth intentions and its influencing factors among reproductive-aged women in Shandong Province, China, within the context of the Universal Two-Child Policy (UTCP). Background: Refining fertility policies and enhancing fertility rates constitute pivotal strategies for China to mitigate the challenges posed by population aging. Understanding fertility intention and its influencing factors is the foundation for refining fertility policies and enhancing fertility rates. As a traditional populous province of China, it has some representativeness to explore the second-birth intentions and their influencing factors of reproductive-aged women in Shandong Province within the context of the UTCP. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among 2,422 reproductive-aged women (18–45 years) randomly recruited from Shandong Province. Univariate analysis and binary logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with second-birth intentions. Results: Only 48.02% of respondents expressed willingness to have a second child. The results showed that influencing factors of second birth intentions (P < 0.05) included actual fertility timing, impact of household economic status on actual fertility intention, awareness of fertility policy, place of household registration, impact of social and familial expectations on actual fertility intention, marital status, impact of personal career development on actual fertility intention, household size, impact of challenges of childcare on actual fertility intention, self-health status, impact of perceptions of fertility on actual fertility intention and only-child status (ranked by the importance of influencing factors). Conclusion: Various social, economic and personal factors limit second-birth intentions among reproductive-aged women in Shandong. Targeted policies to reduce childcare burdens, support only-child families and protect women's health and work rights can foster sustainable fertility intentions.
Keywords: Universal two-child policy, Reproductive-aged women, Second birth intention, Influencing factors, Fertility policy
Received: 14 Jul 2025; Accepted: 08 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cui, Guo, Shi, Cao, Zhou, Hao, Zhao, Wang and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Hongjing Wang, wanghongjing@sdsmu.edu.cn
Qiang Wang, dzhwangqiang@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.