Discussion
Findings show that information on age-related fertility decline brought forward university students’ expected timing of family formation without reducing their educational and career expectations. The findings on child-timing ideals are consistent with previous studies that show fertility information reduces desired age for childbearing among university students in the short term [Findings also show that information on fertility-related policies had no effects on either family formation or career expectations. These findings contradict our predictions. It could be that fertility-policy information interventions are only effective if they are combined with information on age-related fertility decline. University students’ poor knowledge of age-related fertility decline could have prevented them from understanding how pro-fertility policies could affect their own family formation and career plans. Future studies could examine the effects of providing both types of information simultaneously. Additionally, past research shows that fertility information interventions are more effective if they are tailored and delivered orally [Finally, our findings suggest that both age-related fertility and fertility-related policy information were useful for university students; however, as has been shown previously [One strength of our study was the randomized controlled design with a large sample size. We show that a short information brochure on age-related fertility decline with merely six items and 164 words was sufficient to reduce university students’ ideal age of childbearing in the short term. Previous studies, such as Daniluk and Koert [Our results suggest that informational interventions to correct inaccurate beliefs about fertility, such as overestimation of IVF success rates [The effectiveness of such interventions carries implications for public health and reproductive equality. As maternal ages continue to advance, the proportion of births involving assisted reproduction is projected to increase rapidly [