Background. The interest in childhood as a period of human life and in children as  members of society is determined by negative transformations of the sociocultural development  observed in the period starting with 70-80s of the 20^th century to the present day.

The Objective of the paper is to describe the pilot research for optimizing parenting motivation as part of personal education. The basic hypothesis of the research is the assumption about the objective dependence of parenting motivation on the system of value orientations and attitudes of the subject, including the perceived necessity for the child upbringing.

Progress Report. The first stage of the research includes the analysis of foreign and domestic scientists’ works of in the field of psychology of parenting, which allowed to shape the research hypothesis and to design the experimental part. The second stage is the implementation of the experimental research program. Respondents of the research were represented by males and females aged 16 to 22 years.

Research Results. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of the experimental data carried out at the third stage showed that 73 per cent of the respondents pointed to the family as the most important value. The central motivation for child birth in the majority of respondents (84 per cent) is receiving baby love.

Conclusion. The conducted research showed that parenting motivation is well-developed in the respondents. The hypothesis about the distinctive features of parenting motivation at the stages of early and late adolescence, and also the hypothesis of the gender specificity of parenting motivation have also been confirmed. Similarly, the qualitative analysis of the experimental data that has been performed in the research reveals the maximum intensity of the emotional component of parenting motivation. The cognitive component that objectively determines the stability of motivation is weakly expressed. To develop the parenting motivation as part of personal education  the program aimed at harmonizing the development process of both emotional and cognitive component of parenting motivation was organized.

The article provides an overview of the socio-demographic, socio-economic and psychological approaches to the study of reproductive behavior of spouses carried out over the last 30 years. Two categories of concepts that explain the determination of decisions on childbearing are regarded: rational-pragmatic and hedonistic. The trends in the development of this field of knowledge are as follows: 1) overcoming economical-oriented logic in explaining the factors and determinants of the decision making process; 2) individual psychological factors study in addition to the traditional socio-psychological analysis of the determination of childbirth; 3) the transition from studying the context of decisions about childbirth to the analysis of their role and place in the context of the person biography.

The analysis of the concepts and empirical studies helps not only to reveal a massive shift of professional interest from economic and demographic factors to psychological ones, but also to have a better understanding of socio-cultural and psychological and value determined roots of that shift. Nowadays, in contrast to biological patterns and established traditions, a personal or family decision about bearing a child is becoming more and more conscious.

Particular attention is paid to the concept of mental regulation of reproductive behavior that is developed at the intersection of psychology of reproductive behavior, psychology of parenthood and individual psychology. The supportive argument is that new objects of study are considered, such as voluntarily childless families, parents at risk, same-sex families.