Abstract: The analysis of females’desire to give births, in the past research, was often conducted from the angles of exterior social factors and demographic economics, its basic assumption being that the female was a macro uniform group, which ignored individuals’different choices and the corresponding causes. To make up for this defect, this paper, using qualitative method, sequentially encoded the data from depth interviews with 16 urban women; the analysis finds that urban women’s outlooks on reproduction can be divided into two types: individual positioned and family oriented. The individual outlooks can be further divided according to the classification of individual significance and value of reproduction into: independence-responsibility, independence-mission, dependence-responsibility, and dependence-mission. From the relativity of outlook on reproduction, family factors may more likely influence the choice of the dependence-responsibility and independence-responsibility women while the dependence-mission and independence-mission women tend to make their choice in accordance with their own outlooks. To conclude, the levels of reproduction outlooks and the “anchoring effect”may significantly help better understand women’s different choices concerning the firth of a second child.

Key words: urban women, reproduction outlook, value orientation, choice of reproduction