Who Remains Childless? Unrealized Fertility Plans in Hungary

Abstract

This article focuses on remaining childless as a result of certain choices and constraints (not on becoming childless as a result of outliving children). There are two main aims of this study. First it seeks to reveal whether any specifi c features appear when (temporarily) childless people are compared with those with children in the same cohorts. It also aims to explore what kinds of factors can lead to childlessness (or more precisely, the prolongation of a childless period in life) among those men and women who, according to their self-assessment, were not prevented from having children by their own or their partner's health constraints. The analysis draws on GGS data from the fi rst three waves of the Hungarian panel survey 'Turning Points of the Life Course' conducted in 2001, 2004, and 2008. The focus is on men and women who were childless in 2001 and were still childless in 2008. According to the fi ndings, events directly connected to childbearing, such as having a stable partner or not having a partner, living in cohabitation or in marriage, have more infl uence on decisions about becoming parents than normative expectations, while economic factors (such as having a job) have some impact mainly on postponing childbearing, but do not seem to infl uence directly whether people will remain childless.

Tracking the Effects of Parenthood on Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Hungary

“…The question thus arises why Hungarians do not have more second children if they indeed experience such positive changes upon having a second child, as this study finds. Understanding this paradox is crucial, as the low fertility rate in Hungary is mainly attributable to the low number of second children (Miettinen and Szalma 2014;Szalma and Takács 2015).…”

“…There are multiple reasons for the relatively low fertility level in Hungary, including poor economic conditions, the dismantling of institutions, value shifts, and social anomie (Spéder and Kapitány 2014). Empirical studies suggest that the low number of children can mostly be attributed to the fact that second children are not being born, whereas childlessness still plays a relatively minor role (Miettinen and Szalma 2014;Szalma and Takács 2015). Further, Hungarians generally have strong intentions of having children since there is a considerable gap between the ideal and actual number of children (Molnár 2009;Kapitány and Spéder 2015).…”

“…Firstly, a lower standard of living in CEE countries may limit individuals' options in their quest for happiness (Szalai 1991). Secondly, the below average fertility rate in the CEE region is mainly attributable to a low level of second births (Miettinen and Szalma 2014;Szalma and Takács 2015) and less to childlessness. Finally, CEE countries typically have long periods of paid parental leave, which go hand-in-hand with the low employment rate of mothers.…”

Fertility myths, technology myths and their sources - Lay reasoning about age-related fertility decline

“…Almost all previous research took place in leading high-resource countries, so less is known about the situation in other regions. Previous research in Hungary with childless women gave some indication that there might be knowledge problems with fertility issues (Szalma-Takács 2014, Szalma-Takács 2015, and the results of a representative survey show that attitudes toward artificial insemination are positive (Szalma 2014) -however, no previous sociological research has been conducted in Hungary that focused on the topic of age-related infertility.…”

Egyetemi hallgatónők gyermekvállalási tervei és értelmezései a korhoz kapcsolódó fertilitás-csökkenésről

“…A gyermekvállalás időzítését befolyásoló tényezők A szülővé válás idejének kitolása alapvető társadalmi, gazdasági és kulturális átalakulások eredménye (Sobotka 2004). Hazai és külföldi kutatások a gyerekvállalási döntésekre ható mikro, makro és mezo szintű tényezők széles körét állapították meg: mint például a munkaerőpiaci helyzet, iskolázottság, anyagi helyzet, párkapcsolat minősége, jóléti intézkedések; különféle normák, attitűdök (Bálint-Köllő 2008, Billari-Philipov-Testa 2009, Blossfeld-Hofmeister 2006, Hakim 2000, Husz 2006, Mills et al 2011, Nagy Beáta 2009, Paksi-Szalma 2009, Paksi-Király-Luksander 2014, Pongrácz-S. Molnár 2011, Róbert-Bukodi 2005, S. Molnár 2010, Sobotka 2004, Spéder-Kapitány 2006, 2007, Szalma-Takács 2015. gyermek melletti munkavállalás nehézségei, illetve a pártalálás nehézségei (Paksi-Király-Luksander 2014).…”