Sieben, Ilse (2024) Religiosity and fertility intentions in the Netherlands: exploring gender norms and attitudes. Master thesis.
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Abstract
While extensive research has explored the effect of different religious denominations on fertility rates, recent studies have shifted towards understanding how individual religiosity and personal religious values impact fertility behaviour. Specific attentions has been given to traditional gender norms and attitudes prescribed by religious doctrines. Many religious doctrines advocate pronatalist views and traditional family roles, encouraging religious individuals to have greater fertility intentions. Therefore, it could be argued that traditional gender norms and attitudes function as a mediating factor between religiosity and fertility intentions. This thesis explores this relationship in the context of the Netherlands, a highly secularised and relative gender-equal country which has been dealing with low fertility rates. Dutch data from the Gender and Generations Survey (GGS) was utilized to perform multiple logistic and OLS regressions to provide the foundation of this mediation effect. This mediation effect was then decomposed using the KHB-method. Analyses were ran in models for men and women, and childless individuals and parents separately. Results show highly religious childless women are more likely to have positive fertility intentions, and 10.1% of this effect can be explained through their more traditional gender norms and attitudes. For men, however, no significant effects of religiosity or gender norms and attitudes, nor any mediation, were found. Limitations regarding the data and conceptualization of concepts are discussed, and future research ideas are proposed to better understand the dynamic relationship between religion, gender norms and attitudes, and fertility, and what other factors could mediate the relationship between religion and fertility.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Degree programme: | Population Studies |
| Supervisor: | Gauthier, A.M.H. |
| Date Deposited: | 22 Jul 2024 12:38 |
| Last Modified: | 22 Jul 2024 12:39 |
| URI: | https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/4654 |
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