The Centre for Social Sciences Institute for Sociology cordially invites you to
Jour Fixe 114.
Ivett Szalma: How to measure attitudes towards voluntary childlessness in comparative surveys?
Lecturer: Ivett Szalma (CSS Centre for Sociology)
Discussants: Veronika Paksi (CSS Centre for Sociology) Lívia Murinkó (KSH NKI)
Date: 27 April, 2023, 1 p.m.
Venue: Centre for Social Sciences Institute for Sociology, 1097 Budapest, Tóth Kálmán utca 4. Room B1.15
Online:
SOON
Abstract
Across countries, voluntarily childless people face different perceptions. Moreover, perceptions vary regarding voluntary childless men and women. Some studies found that there are higher expectations for women than for men to become parents (Gillespie 2000, Letherby 2002). On the contrary some studies found that more favourable attitudes towards women (Rijken & Merz 2014). De La Rochebrochard – Rozée (2022) in their recent study discussed that different survey designs account for the contradictory results. However, they have not examined the issue in comparative research.
The aim of this paper is to examine social attitudes towards female and male voluntary childlessness in European comparison. To do that we used two international databases which are using different question items to measure the attitudes towards voluntary childlessness: European Social Survey (ESS) from 2018 and the other one from the European Value Studies (EVS) from 2008.
We also found contrary result in acceptance of male and female voluntary childlessness based on ESS and EVS data. However, the multivariate models showed that the same individual and country level explanatory variables predict acceptance and rejection of voluntary childlessness. In this paper we argue that the contrary results are not simple due to the different survey designs but the question wording also matters. Future research focusing on voluntary childlessness should be aware of the effect of item wording, as well.
The paper
The paper is available from the author upon request: szalma.ivett@tk.hu