Attitudes and trends of the ideal number of children in families

This thesis provides an overview of trends in attitudes of the ideal number of children in families. It also include socio-historical context of the evolution of family and childhood, which is presented in the first chapters. In the next part, I discuss the changes in the fertility rates in Europe and Czech Republic. Paper also includes analysis of trends in reproduction, such as a low fertility rate or postponement of births. Last part is mainly about the ideal number of children in families and my empirical work. Empirical part consists of secondary analysis of data from year 1994, 2001, 2004, 2009, 2011/12 and 2020. Based on this analysis, it is shown that respondents in most cases prefer the ideal number of two children. Second option for respondents is model of three children, then model of only child and just a few respondents prefer to have four and more children. According to the analysis, the attitudes and ideals are mostly stable. Keywords: Sociology of the Family, partnership, family, parenthood, children, socio-historical development, values, ideal number of children, fertilit