Content and Objectives

While the births of third and higher parity children had already significantly dropped in the early 20th century, the decline in large families also continued to play a decisive role in the course of the last decline in the birth rate, which started in the 1960s and persisted until recently. Only about 15 percent of the women born in 1970 still have large families. The share is somewhat lower in eastern Germany than in western Germany. From an international perspective, the share of large families has generally declined, but is mostly at a slightly higher level than in Germany.

The project investigates the explanatory factors that favour or prevent people from having a third child as well as the formation of large families over the life course. The focus is on socio-structural and cultural framework conditions, individual life situations and subjective attitudes as well as the constellations of these factors in a couples' context. The decision-making processes, timing of the birth order, contraceptive methods and other proximal determinants are also of importance.

The project places a particular focus on the identifying the determinants for the transition to the third child based on secondary analyses of quantitative data. To the extent possible, the analyses are carried out longitudinally from a couple perspective. In addition to analyses for Germany, international comparisons are also drawn. The SOEP, pairfam and GGS panel surveys as well as the longitudinal study on concepts of family “Familienleitbilder” carried out by the BiB serve as the empirical basis.