KORELATI I ODREDNICE BROJA DJECE U OBITELJI
CORRELATES AND DETERMINANTS OF NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN THE FAMILY

Summary/Abstract: A serious problem of low fertility in Central European countries is discussed and the research was planned with the aim to find out the determinants of low fertility motivation (number of children) of married couples in the Croatian socio-cultural context. Research was performed on a representative sample of the City and metropolitan area of Zagreb comprising 505 married couples. Five groups of potential predictors or correlates of number of children in the family were defined according to the review of pertinent research literature: characteristics of marital partners, marital processes, objective and subjective economic family status, marriage characteristics and partners' experience of social environment. One hundred and five variables were entered into equation. By multiple regression 49% of the variance of the dependent variable has been explained. Logical analysis of the nature of variables revealed possible positive determinants of the number of children in the family. These were: wife's religiosity, wife's ego-involvement, husband's family involvement, husband's marriage traditionalism and husband's prosocial orientation, while negative determinants appeared to be: the importance of security as experienced by husband and husband's experience of life stress.

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