Childlessness and one-child families: explaining the low fertility rate in the Czech Republic

No.: 17-04465S

Abstract: The project aims to contribute to the knowledge on the causes, experience and mechanisms that underpin sub-replacement fertility in the Czech Republic. In particular, childlessness and one-child families will be studied as manifestations of sub-replacement fertility. The project uses a mixed-methods research design, combining secondary analysis of quantitative life-history data and conducting and analysis of biographical interviews. The quantitative analysis will uncover the factors preventing people from progressing to having their first child, and preventing parents from progressing to their second child. The qualitative analysis will explore how childless people and parents of one child experience and attach meanings to their reproductive trajectories. The qualitative research will include a longitudinal case study, which involves re-interviewing communication partners from a previous study. A merging of qualitative and quantitative data will provide a complex understanding of the low rate of fertility in Czech society.

Aims: The research project aims to enhance knowledge on the causes, experience and mechanisms that underpin sub-replacement fertility in a post-socialist context. In particular, it will study childlessness and one-child families as manifestations of sub-replacement fertility.