Measuring Attitudes towards Voluntary Childlessness in Europe

Ivett Szalma , Centre for Social Sciences- Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre of Excellence
Marieke Heers, Swiss Foundation for Research in the Social Sciences (FORS)
Maria Letizia Tanturri, University of Padova

Across Europe, voluntary childlessness is increasing, yet, little is known about how to measure its acceptance in comparative surveys. This study examines two items that were used in the two most important European databases; namely, the European Values Study and the European Social Survey from 2008 and 2018. One item focuses on the prescriptive dimension and the other on the prospective dimension of attitudes towards voluntary female and male childlessness. Our results show that socio-demographic variables relate differently to the two dimensions of voluntary childlessness. Furthermore, macro level variables differently predict the two dimensions of voluntary childlessness: The lower a country’s gender inequality the higher the acceptance of voluntary childlessness in terms of both dimensions. At the same time, a higher childlessness rate predicts favourable attitudes towards voluntary childlessness only in the prospective dimension. Macro-level religiousness does not predict any dimension. Thus, it matters which dimension of voluntary childlessness is measured as different factors predict their acceptance. Yet, we found minor differences between measuring attitudes towards male and female voluntary childlessness.

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 Presented in Session P1. Fertility, Family, Life Course