ABSTRACT
In Italy the proportion of childless women at the end of reproductive life has doubled in one generation and it is among the highest ever registered in the world: just one woman out of ten among the cohort born in 1950 ended her reproductive life without children, while for the cohort born 27 years later (that might well represent the cohort of their daughter) the proportion is more than one out five (22%). At the same time, recent surveys continue to register a quite small proportion of Italian young women who state that they do not want children, o whose ideal number of children is equal to zero (the so-called childfree).
A burgeoning of publication has recently identified individual characteristics and biography of women (and in few cases also of men) that are associated to childlessness using basically retrospective survey data (mostly relying on Family and Social Subjects 2009 for Italy). However, a causal analysis to understand the factors that in a decisional process make such a large part of women (and men) to opt for a childless life, in a context that apparently seems not to refuse parenthood ideologically, is lacking also because there are no data available to perform it.
The innovative idea of this project is to carry out a study specifically designed to investigate on the factors driving both women and men to childlessness in the life-course decision making process, using an innovative statistical experimental method with vignettes/scenarios included in an ad-hoc web survey.
In addition, a subsequent laboratory experiment will provide further insights on the psychological mechanisms leading to childlessness, for those women who are childless but do not show a clear preference in favour of this condition.The final aim of this study is to provide sound indications for policy makers to design appropriate and efficacious policies to support individual choices of those people wishing