Attitudes, Beliefs, Family Ideals and First Births in Germany

Sandra Krapf, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

The aim of this study is to investigate the relevance of attitudes, beliefs and family ideals for fertility decisions. First, we are interested in the question how childbearing attitudes are related to a person’s value system. In this context, one relevant question is how attitudes toward childbearing interact with career orientation of women and men. Moreover, we are interested in how cultural ideals about the family shape attitudes. Second, we investigate whether attitudes determine entry into parenthood. To better understand the potential father’s role in the childbearing decision-making process, this analysis considers both women’s and male partner’s attitudes. Using the German Family Panel “pairfam” allows examining the relationships between different attitudinal concepts in a traditionally conservative welfare state. In order to investigate how attitudes relate to beliefs and family values, we apply factor analytical methods. For the analysis of entry into parenthood, we run discrete time hazard models.