Reproductive Motivation in Middle-Income Large Families: The Results of a Narrative Interview

The purpose of the article is to present the results of a sociological study of large families with average incomes for reproductive motivation, the birth of subsequent (after the first) children. Research Methodology in this paper, the authors relied on the phenomenological and anthropological approaches, theories of familistic and sociology of the family. The main method of obtaining data was the method of narrative interviews with spouses from large families with middle and/or high incomes. Based on the results of a narrative interview conducted in the autumn of 2018 among large families of the Ural region, the authors reveal the features of reproductive motivation in large families with middle-income. The article describes attitudes toward motherhood and the birth of children of mothers and fathers of many children, including the timing of births, as well as the birth of children of different sexes. An analysis of narrative interviews allowed us to draw conclusions about the change in attitudes toward the birth of children and the motivation of births during the life of mothers, the impact of having children on changes in their daily lives — their financial situation, their relationship with their spouse, and their way of life. The authors investigate the influence on the motivation of fertility in mothers with many children such factors as features of parental families, attitudes towards religion, marital status, personal life goals, etc.