Possible Impacts On Society Due To The Current Young Adults’ Views Towards Having Children
4.1 General perception on having children
Current trend in fertility rate
According to Professor Siu, Hong Kong is now undergoing demographic transition. It has the lowest fertility rate in the world of 0.9, which falls short of the standard replacement level of 2.1. Most alarmingly, Prof. Ting pointed out that even between two consecutive generations, the difference in fertility rate is large.
As stated by the two professors, the main reasons account for the declining fertility rate is the deferral of the age of marriage and the widening of the first baby interval. They predicted that fertility rate would not rise in the next few years.
General perceptions on having children
Although young people nowadays are claimed to be more open minded, marriage is still the necessary condition for giving birth. Prof. Siu has explained that the numerical growth in families which do have children without marriage may mislead us as within these families, most of them are co-habiting and in fact they are considered as husbands and wives by law.
According to Prof. Siu, the ideal age for pregnancy is 20 to 29, beyond this, the probability of giving birth to babies with physical and/or mental illnesses would be much higher. In this survey, the mean of the suitable age for pregnancy is 28, which lies at the margin of the ideal age for pregnancy suggested by Prof. Siu. On the other hand, Prof. Ting has hinted that the medical improvement has lengthened the fertility of women, but still, it’s not advisable to have children after the age of 35.
From the findings, young adults nowadays placed a relatively low importance in ‘children’. Prof. Siu and Prof. Ting have clarified that probably, it is not because young adults think that children are unlovable, but owing to the socio-economic development, more considerations are needed when people decide whether to have children or not, this in turns, lower the ranking of...
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