Motivations for Having Large Families: Perspectives of the Rural Elderly

Wan Ibrahim Wan Ahmad¹

1. Director, Academic and Research Division, International Center for Madani Studies (ICMS), Kompleks Dar al-Hikmah, Jalan ABIM, 43000 Kajang, Malaysia.

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.11 , Issue.1 , pp.36-41, Jan-2025

Online published on Jan 31, 2025

Copyright © Wan Ibrahim Wan Ahmad . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
Having large families are a norm in rural areas in many parts of developing countries, including Malaysia. This is because children are considered the main source of financial support for parents in old age. Most parents in rural areas do not have any source of income to sustain themselves during their later years. For this reason, families in developing countries often expect to have many children, a situation that leads to high fertility rates. Research on female fertility shows that the more advanced a society becomes, the lower its fertility level tends to be. The main aim of this paper is to examine the motivations why rural elderly in Malaysia are likely to have large families. Using a qualitative research design, ten research participants were purposively selected to explore this issue. The findings highlighted five key reasons why the research participants chose to have many children: (1) economic benefits for the parents, (2) old age security, (3) assistance with household chores for mothers and work outside the home for fathers, (4) continued spiritual rewards for parents after death, and (5) societal praise for couples with many children. Based on the motivations discussed, it is reasonable that the fertility rate in rural areas remain high.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Fertility; family size; financial security; financial support; elderly parents; developing countries

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