Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of the Childbearing Motivations Scale

Antonio Gattamelata (), Maria Elisabetta Coccia, Giulia Fioravanti, Vanessa Prisca Zurkirch and Nieves Moyano
Additional contact information
Antonio Gattamelata: Escuela de Doctorado en Psicología, Universidad de Jaén, Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, 23071 Jaén, Spain
Maria Elisabetta Coccia: Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences “Mario Serio”, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Giulia Fioravanti: Department of Health Sciences (DSS), University of Florence, 50135 Florence, Italy
Vanessa Prisca Zurkirch: Maternal and Child Department, Regional Reference Center on Relational Criticalities (RCRC), Careggi University Hospital, 50134 Florence, Italy
Nieves Moyano: Escuela de Doctorado en Psicología, Universidad de Jaén, Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, 23071 Jaén, Spain

IJERPH, 2025, vol. 22, issue 2, 1-21

Abstract: The Childbearing Motivations Scale (CMS) is a multidimensional self-report measure of positive and negative motivations influencing the decision to become a parent. This study aimed to validate the Italian version of the CMS. A sample of 522 participants (27% men and 73% women) aged from 18 to 55 years was recruited. The four-factor model for the positive subscale and the five-factor model for the negative subscale of the CMS demonstrated a good fit. Reliability values ranged from 0.70 to 0.91. Both factors had evidence for convergent validity with sex, age, and relationship duration: women reported lower in some of the negative motivations to become a mother in contrast to men. Moreover, the greater the age, the lower the negative motivations for becoming a parent. Those in a longer relationship indicated lower negative motivations. No significant correlations were found for the positive motivations subscale. Significant differences were found for income levels (low vs. medium/high) regarding personal fulfillment, financial problems, and body-image concerns, as well as in cultural levels (medium vs. high) concerning economic constraints, intergenerational continuity, immaturity, and physical suffering. These findings suggest that individuals with lower economic resources scored higher across all these areas on the Negative Childbearing Motivations subscale. Our findings indicate that the CMS can be used to reliably assess the motivations for parenthood among Italian men and women.

Keywords: childbearing motivations scale; positive childbearing motivations; negative childbearing motivations; parenting; validation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/2/186/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/2/186/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:2:p:186-:d:1579300

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().