Why I Decided to be a Pregnant Bride?--The Phenomenon of Premarital Pregnancy in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Yan-ru Gung, 龔妍儒
• Other Authors: Ching -li Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/85595552517814364198

碩士 === 南華大學 === 應用社會學系社會學碩士班 === 96 === 　　The increase of premarital sex behaviors has significant raised the prevalence of premarital pregnancy. However, the ratio of extra-marriage procreation in Taiwan is much lower than in Europe and America. In Taiwan, most of women having unmarried pregnancy choose to get married once they decide to give a procreation, so the ratio of marriage based on child is growing. 　　 　　This research firstly intends to understand why marriage has close relationship with procreation and what factors behind. Secondly, we want to explore the course of choosing marriage by those who are pregnant before marriage, what their considerations and how they make decision. Finally we want to explore their view and attitude toward marriage and procreation. 　　 　　In order to grasp the connotation of change on pregnancy-marriage sequence that includes life experiences, the research took in-depth interviews as the methodology. But for depicting the entire situation of premarital pregnancy, we used the data of "Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice of Contraception in Taiwan: Family and Fertility Survey (KAP Survey) to describe the trend of life course of pregnancy, marriage and procreation in Taiwan. 　　 　　The quantitative results found: (1) the rise of pregnancy before marriage happened in both generations and education levels, and (2) the average age of the first marriage among people who were pregnant before marriage was lower than those who had baby after marriage. It was evident that the pregnancy was a "boost" for marriage. 　　 　　In Taiwan, people consider the pregnancy as the booster for marriage because of cultural norms that are deeply believed by the traditional Chinese. The traditional values affecting the idea that procreation should be under marriage include the concepts of "position and privilege protection", "responsibility", "blood inheritance". Meanwhile, most of people will consider from the angle of the development of body and mind of children and think they should give their children a "healthy family" and so choose marriage before having a baby. Therefore, some people who plan pregnancy before marriage take advantage of the idea of inheritance and carrying on the family name to reach the purpose of marriage. 　　 　　Besides, the continuous decline of marriage rate and the delay of the first marriage age were not resulted from that people did not emphasize on marriage any more but the rise of marriage threshold. Furthermore, many advantages of marriage could obtain in non-marital relationship (such as cohabitation), so marriage is not so urgent and the age of marriage would continue to delay. But the procreation and marriage are combined together in traditional Chinese idea, if people want to procreate, they have to get married. At this time, the personal pre-set threshold and standard are completely forsaken.