The main objective of the project is to contribute to the understanding of causes of the changing patterns of union formation and dissolution as well as childbearing that take place in Italy and Poland. In particular we are interested in answering two questions:

 

1. Does the ongoing demographic change result from ideational change or is it driven by emerging structural constraints, such as rising employment instability and income instability coupled with rigid housing markets and institutional barriers to combining motherhood and paid work?

 

2. Which factors constitute the most important structural constrains to family formation?

 

Italy and Poland were selected for a comparative analysis since these two countries display several similarities (such as low fertility, delayed diffusion of such family-related behaviours as cohabitation or non-marital childbearing, strong attachment to Catholic and family values, weak public support for working parents, traditional gender norms, rigid working hours), but also exhibit some well-recognized differences (e.g. in the timing of childbearing, material well-being of families or history of women’s labour force participation). Selecting such countries for an analysis provides us with a promising, and so far unexplored, setting for a comparative analysis that can facilitate our understanding of how country-specific cultural and structural factors influence family-related behaviours.

 

Following demographic processes will be analysed: fertility (with an insight into childlessness as well as non-marital childbearing), union formation (including cohabitation) and union dissolution. We will study how these processes are interrelated with the socio-economic status of the individuals, women’s rising position in the labour market, transformations in the labour markets (increasing employment and income instability) and the values and attitudes toward family behaviours acknowledged by the Italians and the Poles. The analyses will be carried out on micro-level longitudinal and cross-sectional internationally comparative data, such as Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) and European Social Survey (ESS). These data sources will be complemented by national data, mainly the Multipurpose Household Survey “Family and Social Subjects” (FSS 2009, Italy) and  Employment, Family and Education Survey (EFES 2006, Poland).

 

Keywords: Family-related behaviours, structural constrains, ideational change, trendsetters, life course, Italy, Poland.