Reduced fertility intention is an important prerequisite for fertility decline, and exploring its influencing factors is of great significance in promoting the long-term balanced development of the population, whereas most of the existing researches are confined to quantitative analysis and lacks exploration at the subjective level.

Under the backdrop of the three-child policy, to explore the influencing factors of the three-child fertility intentions of women of childbearing age and the underlying reasons for their unwillingness to have children, in order to provide a basis for improving the supporting measures for the fertility policy.

A mixed study method was used. From January to May 2024, the childbearing-age women in urban and rural areas in the south (Chizhou City and Ma'anshan City), central (Hefei City and Lu'an City), and north (Fuyang City and Bozhou City) of Anhui Province were selected by convenience sampling method and surveyed with a questionnaire (including personal, family economic, social, and marital factors). Multivariate Logistic regression was used to analyze the factors affecting the childbearing-age women's intentions to have a third child. During the same period, the phenomenological research method was used to purposively and heterogeneously extract the childbearing-age women who were unwilling to have a third child in the quantitative study for semi-structured interviews. Colaizzi's seven-step analysis was used to refine the interview themes.

A total of 2 400 questionnaires were distributed, and 2 234 valid questionnaires were finally collected, with a valid recovery rate of 93.1%. 186 (8.3%) of the 2 234 childbearing-age womenintended to have a third child. The results of multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the degree of housing pressure (mild stress: OR=0.651, 95%CI=0.442-0.959; moderate stress: OR=0.473, 95%CI=0.303-0.740), the spouse's attitude towards having a third child (unsupportive: OR=0.594, 95%CI=0.375-0.941; indifferent: OR=0.465, 95%CI=0.299-0.723), the spouse's sharing of household chores (moderate sharing: OR=0.371, 95%CI=0.239-0.577; occasional sharing: OR=0.534, 95%CI=0.354-0.805), the place of residence (town: OR=0.578, 95%CI=0.384-0.871), and the number of children (one: OR=0.554, 95%CI=0.328-0.934) were the influencing factors of the intention of childbearing-age women to have a third child (P<0.05). A total of 22 childbearing-age women were finally interviewed, and four themes of deep-seated reasons for childbearing-age women's unwillingness to have a third child were distilled: the high cost of childbearing, the weak support within the family, the difficulty in balancing work and family, and imperfect supporting measures for childbearing policies.

The intention of childbearing-age women to have a third child is less than 10% in Anhui Province, with the degree of housing pressure, the spouse's attitude towards having a third child, the spouse's sharing of household chores, the place of residence, and the number of children being the main factors influencing the childbearing-age women's intention to have a third child. The high cost of childbearing, the weak support within the family, the difficulty in balancing work and family, and imperfect supporting measures for childbearing policies are the deep-rooted reasons why childbearing-age women are unwilling to have a third child. It is recommended that the fertility support policy be further improved to enhance the fertility enthusiasm of the childbearing-age group, to effectively solve the problem of low fertility rate.