Fertility patterns and trends in post-socialist countries contrasted with Sweden and the United States of America

The thesis addresses fertility patterns and trends in post-socialist countries of the Czech Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Latvia and western countries of Sweden and the United States of America during 1999 - 2007 period. Differentials in shifts in fertility behavior including changes in family formation, fertility timing and extramarital childbearing coming from the baby-boom era in western countries and the collapse of state socialist regime in post-socialist countries are described in the thesis. The tendency in changing attitudes to childbearing and the role of the children in the family are obviously seen. After examining the age profile in fertility development for selected countries the role of women according to age group in overall fertility is explained. Share of live births borne outside of marriage in western countries has increased over the past decades. While the vast changes in the proportion of extramarital live births in post-socialist countries observed since entering to the market economy of state management. This is explained by several reasons including less favorable socio-economic conditions during the transition period and changes in social norms in the society. Relationship between the share of extramarital live births and..