Background: The aim of this study was to assess relationships among age of marriage, religious and educational levels, participation of couples in childbearing and finical status with childbearing motivation using structural equation model. Material and methods: This study is a secondary analysis of previous data. Forty hundred fifty young couples attending four healthcare centers of Mashhad included in this study. Sampling method was convenience sampling. Structural equation modeling was performed using AMOS version 19.0. Model was tested using maximum likelihood. Goodness of fit of the model was evaluated based on the Chi-square to degree of freedom ratio (χ2/df), goodness-of-fit index (GFI), comparative fit index (CFI) and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). Results: Mean age was 22.16±4.84 for females and 26.02±4.6 for males. The result of our study showed that childbearing motivation model was well fit with data (GFI=0.96; CFI=0.96; RMSEA=0.063 and x2/ df= 4.51). Marriage age and educational level significantly negatively associated with childbearing motivation, respectively (standardized β =-0.082, p=0.018) and (standardized β =0.-222.p<0.001). Religious level is positively significantly associated with positive motivation (standardized β =0.226, p<0.001). Participation of couples in childbearing had a significant strong effect on positive motivation (standardized β =0.56, p<0.001). The R-squared value for childbearing motivation model was 0.36. Conclusion: The findings indicated that the couple’s childbearing motivations were influenced by educational level, participation of couples in childbearing, marriage age and religious level. Identifying these factors can contribute to the design of appropriate interventions to improve reproductive indices.

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