Childless or Childfree? Paths to Voluntary Childlessness in Italy

This article investigates childlessness in Italy. Trends in childlessness are presented and compared with trends elsewhere in Europe. Different paths to childlessness are outlined, using data from a survey carried out among childless women aged 40-44 in five Italian cities in 2002. Individual charac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Population and development review 2008-03, Vol.34 (1), p.51-77
Main Authors: Tanturri, Maria Letizia, Mencarini, Letizia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Childlessness
Children
Cohabitation
Collaboration
Consensual union
Demographic change
Demographic research
Demography
Development studies
Family
Female fertility
Females
Interpersonal relations
Italy
Leisure time
Marriage
Motherhood
Mothers
Parenthood
Polls & surveys
Population
Religion
Religiosity
Reproductive behavior
Women
Working women
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Summary:This article investigates childlessness in Italy. Trends in childlessness are presented and compared with trends elsewhere in Europe. Different paths to childlessness are outlined, using data from a survey carried out among childless women aged 40-44 in five Italian cities in 2002. Individual characteristics of the childless and reasons for childlessness are investigated. As many as one-third of the interviewees who live with a partner and do not suffer from any physical impediment are voluntarily childless. These women, in contrast to mothers, appear to be less religious and to have partners who are less religious; they tend to come from smaller families; to have been in a nonmarital cohabitation at least once in life; to have entered their first union later; and to have had, in the initial period of their union, temporary work and flexible work schedules and limited leisure time. In other cases, childlessness is the unintended outcome of a decision to delay having a child or the result of adverse external circumstances, particularly dissolution of partnership.
ISSN:0098-7921
1728-4457
DOI:10.1111/j.1728-4457.2008.00205.x