Effective factors on voluntary childlessness and one-child tendency from couples' perspective: Compulsory childlessness or child-avoidance?

Background: Couples' childless and one-child intention is one of the crucial challenges in all societies. Considering the aging of the world's population and the need to review birth control policies, it is necessary to take evidence-based measures. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the influencing factors on the tendency of couples to be childless and have only one child. Methods: The present study is the first part of a mixed (qualitative-quantitative) study. The study is qualitative with a conventional content analysis approach. The research population consists of all couples aged 15-49 in 2021 in Babol city, who were single or childless and had no intention of pregnancy in the future. Sampling is based on the purpose, and the number of samples is 40 couples. To collect data, face-to-face and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants. Results: The results of the analysis include 140 codes, 30 sub-categories, 9 categories(Economic problems, uncertainty in the future security, threatened priorities, uncertainty about the continuation of life, Fear of becoming a parent, lack of support, diminishing religious beliefs, social role modeling and negative experiences) and two themes. These factors indicate the mandatory conditions for childlessness or one- child choice or voluntary child-free. Conclusion: The results revealed that voluntary childlessness and single-child depend on various aspects. Support of the government, parenting education and efforts to change the attitude of couples by the government can help to improve the health of the family and achieve the goals of population growth policies.