114 research outputs found
Socioeconomic resources and family formation among young Finnish adults
Get PDFHow do individuals’ employment or financial resources affect childbearing in Finland? Are these resources equally important to men and women, or in couples?
This study examines the relationship between individuals’ socioeconomic resources – employment, education, and income– and entry into parenthood. The results show that employment stability is a key prerequisite for family formation among young adults in Finland. Being unemployed or having fewer financialresources is related to postponement of parenthood in most population groups, notably among those who are approaching age 30, or above it. A lack of economic resources appears to be an obstacle to family formation at several stages: first through union formation, and next, within unions. The associations are very similar among men and women, indicating that policies that support gender equality in employment are advantageous to childbearing
Voluntary or Involuntary Childlessness? Socio-Demographic Factors and Childlessness Intentions among Childless Finnish Men and Women aged 25-44
Get PDFLifetime childlessness is expected to increase in the future. Recent research suggests that also voluntary childlessness in increasing among young adults. As childbearing decisions are increasingly based on individual preferences and choices it is believed that also those who do not favor family life with children can now more freely express their preferences. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of voluntary childlessness among Finnish young adults and factors associated with it. Data come from Finnish Social Relationships and Well-being Survey, conducted in 2008 among 25-44-year-old childless or one-child men and women. This study focuses on childless respondents (N=1244). Two types of intentional childlessness are distinguished. Persons are classified as voluntarily childless if they do not intend to have children and prefer life without children. Those, who also have no intentions to have children, but whose personal ideal number of children is above zero are defined as persons who have relinquished parenthood intentions. Childhood characteristics are found to predict voluntary childlessness more, while socioeconomic circumstances and lack of a suitable partner explain relinquished parenthood intentions. Respondents personal accounts on the reasons behind their childbearing choices support the findings from multivariate analyses
Education and the division of household labor in dual-earner families
Get PDFThis article is the first report of a study on policies and the division of paid and unpaidwork in families in Finland. The article examines the division ofhousehold labor and itsdeterminants in Finnish dual-eamer families. The main objective is to examine whethereducation has any impact on the division ofunpaid work and men's participation in itcontrolling fr other variables. It was found, that among women, rising educationallevels, non-traditional attitudes and younger age cohort had a negative impact on timespent on housework, while among men only reduced time in employment and nontraditionalattitudes increased the contribution at home. While both men and womenwith higher education and non-traditional attitudes were more likely to perceive theirrelative division as more equal, an analysis of the absolute number of hours spent onhousework seems to support the notion that more equal distribution of tasks at home ismore or less a result of younger and educated women doing less housework. The datacomes from a survey conducted in 1998, in which 2,500 Finnish men and women werequestioned about time use, employment, attitudes about gender roles, work and family,andreconciliation ofwork and family. The Finnish study is part ofa Europeanresearchproject which studies the division oflabor in families in different cultural, political andsocietal settings
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