Study focuses on massive changes in family structure
Funded by the Family Support Agency, the study will be carried out by Dr Margret Fine-Davis of Trinity College Dublin over the next two years.
Since the early 1970s, Ireland has experienced huge changes in the structure of family life, including an increase in the different types of family formations, changes in gender roles and a staggering 50% decrease in the birth rate.
Dr Fine-Davis and her team will study attitudes to family formation and childbearing through a series of interviews with a sample survey of 1,000 Irish men and women.
Interviewees will be between the ages of 25 and 44 and will come from various family structures — single/cohabiting/married and living together, with and without children — and from a variety of socio-economic groups.
Chief executive of the Family Support Agency, Pat Bennet, said: “This is the first study of its kind in Ireland and one of the first in Europe, and will provide us with crucial information that will benefit future generations. It is critical for us to understand how and why these changes are taking place so that we can fulfil our role in the Family Support Agency to greatest effect.”
