Socio-demographic characteristics of women and support systems as a potential determining factors of the fertility level in Serbia

Abstract

Cilj ovog rada jeste da na osnovu rezultata empirijskog kvantitativnog istraživanja realizovanog na Filozofskom fakultetu u Beogradu u periodu od 2020. do 2023. godine, ispita korelacija različitih faktora i odluke žena o tome koliko će dece roditi. Prilikom analize podataka usmerili smo se na socio-demografske karakteristike i porodični i društveni kontekst za koje, držeći se nalaza dosadašnjih istraživanja, pretpostavljamo da utiču na odluku ispitanica da rode jedno ili više dece. Za ispitivanje korelacija pored testova odnosa varijabli, koristili smo i model binarne logističke regresije. Nakon analize zaključili smo da su se kao značajni prediktori pokazali godine starosti ispitanice, njen bračni status, starost ispitanice prilikom rađanja prvog deteta i ocena značajnosti vrtića za usklađivanje rada i roditeljstva. Prediktori za koje smo na osnovu teorijskog okvira pretpostavili da će se pokazati kao značajni, ali nisu, jesu materijalni položaj ispitanice, obrazovanje, njen radni status i to da li je imala pomoć u periodu odgajanja dece. Pri tome se testom korelacije pokazalo da je broj sati angažovanja starijih generacija ipak u korelciji sa odlukom o broju dece. Stoga se može zaključiti da pored individualnih karakteristika, spoljni faktori koji se prvenstveno očitavaju u podršci mladim majkama, imaju važnu ulogu prilikom planiranja porodice.This paper aims to examine, based on the results of an empirical quantitative study, the influence of various factors on women’s decisions regarding the number of children they will have. The research was conducted through a survey carried out between 2020 and 2023 at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. In analyzing the data, we focused on socio-demographic characteristics and the family and social context, which—according to our theoretical framework—are assumed to influence respondents’ decisions to have one or more children. To examine the correlation of these factors, in addition to variable relationship tests, we also used a binary logistic regression model. The analysis showed that significant predictors included the respondent’s age, marital status, age at the birth of the first child, and the perceived importance of kindergartens in balancing work and parenting. Predictors that were theoretically assumed to be significant but were not confirmed as such include the respondent’s material status, level of education, employment status, and whether she received help during the child-rearing period. However, correlation testing indicated that the number of hours of support provided by older generations is correlated with decisions about family size. Therefore, it can be concluded that, in addition to individual characteristics, external factors—especially support available to young mothers—play an essential role in family planning