ABSTRACT Childbearing decisions are a pivotal factor shaping the future professional and personal trajectories of nursing students, profoundly influenced by a confluence of socioeconomic, cultural, and individual factors. This qualitative descriptive study explores the childbearing attitudes, intentions, plans, and their underlying influencing factors among university nursing students in China. The empirical material was generated from semi‐structured interviews conducted between November 2024 and March 2025, with thematic analysis applied to the data. Four major themes emerged: a polarized value perception of childbearing, framed as either a path to life fulfillment or a “high‐risk event”; childbearing as a rational choice contingent upon constructing a “safe zone” of economic, professional, and psychological readiness; the critical influence of key relational actors, including partners and grandparents; and the structural pressures of the macro‐social environment, such as high rearing costs and gender culture. The findings indicate that contemporary nursing students have transformed childbearing decisions into a cautious evaluation of a “high‐risk life milestone,” with procreation predicated on achieving an ideal state of readiness—a threshold significantly elevated by a desire to “surpass the previous generation.” Consequently, effective pro‐natalist policies must move beyond mere financial incentives to address the structural barriers and deep‐seated anxieties related to career development, gender equality, and workforce support within the healthcare sector.
Xue et al. (Tue,) studied this question.