The lack of economic resources and the difficulties in reconciling fatherhood and motherhood with professional life are the main reasons why men and women believe they are not having children, according to the “Fertility, family and childhood” survey published this Tuesday by the CIS . Carried out between December 11 and 19 with 5,742 interviews, the survey also reveals that strong concerns about real estate prices (40.7%), the unemployment rate (42.5%) and the cost of food (30.3%) encourage or would encourage Spaniards to consider having children.
Thus, economic difficulties are cited by 77.3% of those questioned, and for 50.3% they constitute the main reason; Next come problems with work-life balance, mentioned by 44.1% and, further, the idea that they hinder their professional career (26.4%).
Indeed, 69.9% of participants believe that having children reduces opportunities for work and career progression, particularly for mothers, and 87.7% recognize that they represent an economic burden. But the vast majority (93.1%) believe that watching them grow is one of the greatest pleasures in life.
A third of those questioned did not have children at the time of the survey, even if the majority would have liked to have one (58.9%). Of those who have one, half have two, the ideal figure being 43.7%; 27.4% have three and 58.6% would not have liked to have more.
Three out of four were working when the first was born, 67.4% of them full time, 11.3% saw their working hours reduced (28.1% between 1 and 6 months and 14.6% for two years) and 4.7% requested work stoppage. of which 43% extended between 1 and 6 months and 32.9% for a year.
Being new parents meant a stabilization of their employment for 38.1%, but for 29.2% it was a limitation of their possibilities for promotion and for 23.5% it was a reduction in their professional activity. However, for 52.3% of them, having children was not an obstacle to their professional career.
11% devote more than 41 hours to caring for minors, the elderly or disabled people and 10.5% between 21 and 40 years old. Aside from this care, the majority devote between 8 and 20 hours to domestic tasks, and the majority believe that their distribution is more or less what corresponds to each person.
27.3% come home from work too tired to perform these tasks several times a week and 15.9% have difficulty meeting family responsibilities due to their job. Faced with this situation, 47.6% believe that the government should relax working hours for workers with family responsibilities and 31% believe that it should improve the tax treatment of families with children.
Finally, and with regard to childhood, the three main problems that children currently encounter, in the opinion of Spaniards, are the education system (30.2%); lack of education and values (30.1%) and economic difficulties (20.3%), followed, not far away, by screen addiction (19.8%). However, 43.2% believe that today’s children’s childhoods will be more or as happy as theirs.
