Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 70 No. 2, 2000.
Original scientific paper
Attitudes of Croatian Citizens Towards Having Children
Gordan Črpić
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Karlo Koračević
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The authors present those results from the European Value Study which refer to the attitudes of Croatian citizens towards having children. They say that in the age groups under 58 the number of those having more children has increased (the sample was from 18 - 65 years of age), while the number of those not having children has seen an even greater increase. The number of people who have children but do not live in a stable relationship is also increasing, resulting in more and more children living in single-parent families. The number of women not living in a stable relationship is more than 200% higher than that of men, so there are more and more single mothers. Religious people with low education living in small towns have more children. »Having children« is ranked 5th by the interviewees, which is relatively high among the 16 values offered as being important for a successful marriage. The last majority think that children need both parents to grow up happily, and that people need to have children in order to have a meaningful life. With regard to the importance of children to a woman's fulfilment, there is an extreme polarisation of opinions in which younger interviewees believe children are not an important factor for a woman's fulfilment. The authors state that there is a large gap between the positive attitude towards having children confirmed by the preceding survey in Croatia, and the reality of the drop in birth-rate and fertility confirmed by this survey. Further research is needed in order to identify and analyse the factors causing the gap, by means of which data necessary tο design a more efficient strategy of demographic revival could be obtained.
Keywords
children; desire for children; number of children; importance of children
Hrčak ID:
31166
URI
Publication date:
15.11.2000.
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