Study title

Family Barometer 2005: Parenthood and Fatherhood

Dataset ID Number

FSD2283

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2283
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd2283

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Paajanen, Pirjo (Finnish Family Federation. Population Research Institute)

Other Identification/Acknowledgements

• The project was coordinated by Ismo Söderling. The researchers in the family team participated in designing and developing the survey under the supervision of team leader, Ph.D. Marketta Kyttä.

Abstract

The survey focused on what causes parents of different age to start a family, how the birth of a child affects the lives of women and men, and fatherhood in families with small children.

First, the respondents' childhood and youth were charted. They were presented with questions on their childhood family, the number of their siblings, the number of their spouse's siblings, how old their parents were when their first child was born, and at what age their first dating relationship began. Some questions pertained to how old the respondents were when their first child was born, and whether they had considered themselves to be too young or old to have their first child. In addition, the number of respondents' children and the number of their spouse's children were queried, as well as whether the respondents were planning to have more children.

Some questions explored the respondents' and their spouse's current employment, income level, and short-time working because of child care responsibilities. Their opinions were canvassed on what would be the ideal age to have a first child, and which factors had influenced the decision to have their first child. The respondents' employment and financial situation just before the child was born were also queried.

The respondents were presented with a set of attitudinal statements on challenges involved in starting a family. They gave their opinions on the most frequent causes of arguments with their spouse, and how important they considered various things to be, including financial security, hobbies, good relationship, and health. The respondents also assessed how satisfied they were with those things in their lives.

In relation to received support as regards home and child care, the respondents were asked who had helped them in various situations, for instance when their child had fallen ill or when their home had needed cleaning. They were also asked whether they would have liked to receive more support as regards parenting. If they answered yes, they were also asked to tell what kind of support they would have liked to receive and from whom. Further questions covered the division of child care responsibilities between the mother and the father in their household. The respondents' opinions were also charted on various factors related to parenting and starting a family, and on the role of the father.

The rest of the questions were aimed at male respondents. First they answered open-ended questions about their own conceptions of the father's role, the important things in fatherhood, and what they would like to teach to their daughters and sons. The male respondents were presented with a set of attitudinal statements on fatherhood. They were asked whether they had attended the birth of their children, and whether they had been away from work over a week to care for their children. Further open-ended questions probed the male respondents' opinions on the most problematic and best things in being a father. Views on family life were charted with the help of various statements, and finally, the male respondents assessed how they had succeeded as fathers and spouses.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, year of birth, municipality of residence, education, and occupational group.

Keywords

childbirth; children; economic conditions; families; families with children; family influence; family life; fathers; gender role; housework; mothers; occupational life; parent-child relationship; parental role

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Family life and marriage (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Social welfare policy (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Family Barometers

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• Taloustutkimus Oy

Data Producers

• Finnish Family Federation

Time Period Covered

2005

Collection Dates

2005-01 – 2005-03

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Family

Universe

Women and men born between 1979 and 1984 (aged 20-25), living in Finland (excluding the Åland Islands) and either cohabiting or married, and women and men born between 1969 and 1974 (aged 30-35). The respondents had to have at least one biological child with their current spouse, and their oldest child had to be less than 3 years old.

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Stratified

A random sample of 5,000 was drawn from the population register in December 2004.

The survey specifically aimed at studying the challenges and opinions of people who had started a family at different ages. Therefore, there were two different age groups (20-25-years-olds and 30-35-years-olds) in the survey. The respondents were reached by mail altogether three times. They were sent a letter containing both the questionnaire and a covering letter. The questionnaire was formulated at the Finnish Family Federation at the Population Research Institute, and it was commented by various experts at the Institute. The data were collected in cooperation with Taloustutkimus Oy, which was also responsible for storing the data.

13 respondents were not reached by mail. In addition, 3 respondents contacted the researcher by telephone in order to tell that they were unable to respond to the questionnaire because of their inadequate Finnish skills. Altogether 2,711 completed questionnaires were returned, out of which 77 had to be discarded because the person who had completed the questionnaire did not belong to the sample. In addition, one questionnaire had to be discarded because the respondent had not clearly possessed sufficient language skills to answer the questions, and 3 respondents had a first-born child who was over 3 years old. In all of these cases, the child was born in another country and therefore absent from the population register. The final data set included 2,630 questionnaires. The response rate was 52.6%. Altogether 53.5% of the respondents were female and 46.5% male.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Paper

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

52.6

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

2.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

The data do not include the responses to the open-ended questions.

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Paajanen, Pirjo (Finnish Family Federation): Family Barometer 2005: Parenthood and Fatherhood [dataset]. Version 2.0 (2018-07-12). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2283

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Special Terms and Conditions for Access

Users of the data shall send Väestöliitto [Family Federation of Finland] a copy of all research publications based on or using the data. Publications shall be sent to the mail address: Väestöliitto, Väestöntutkimuslaitos, PL 849, 00101 HELSINKI, FINLAND.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Materials

Paajanen, Pirjo (2005). Eri teitä vanhemmuuteen. Kaksikymppisenä ja kolmekymppisenä lapsen saaneiden näkemyksiä perheellistymisestä ja vanhemmuudesta. Perhebarometri 2005. Helsinki: Väestöliitto Väestöntutkimuslaitoksen Katsauksia E 21/2005

Paajanen, Pirjo (2006). Päivisin leiväntuoja, iltaisin hoivaisä. Alle 3-vuotiaiden esikoislasten isien näkemyksiä ja kokemuksia isyydestä. Perhebarometri 2006. Helsinki: Väestöliitto Väestöntutkimuslaitoksen Katsauksia E 24/2006

Related Publications

Paajanen, Pirjo (2005). Eri teitä vanhemmuuteen. Kaksikymppisenä ja kolmekymppisenä lapsen saaneiden näkemyksiä perheellistymisestä ja vanhemmuudesta. Perhebarometri 2005. Helsinki: Väestöliitto Väestöntutkimuslaitoksen Katsauksia E 21/2005

Paajanen, Pirjo (2006). Päivisin leiväntuoja, iltaisin hoivaisä. Alle 3-vuotiaiden esikoislasten isien näkemyksiä ja kokemuksia isyydestä. Perhebarometri 2006. Helsinki: Väestöliitto Väestöntutkimuslaitoksen Katsauksia E 24/2006

Keto, Tanja (2014) Isien perhevapaat - hyvän isyyden normi? Tarkastelussa lasten isien perhevapaavalinnat. Turku: Turun yliopisto, Sosiaalitieteiden laitos, pro gradu-tutkielma.