Fakhrislamova R. Main Theoretical Approaches to the Explanation of the Phenomenon of Childlessness. Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes. 2015. № 3. Pp. 66-75.

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Abstract

Childlessness as a social and demographic phenomenon is a widely studied topic in social sciences. A big splash of attention to this topic happened in the 70-80-years of XX century, during the unprecedented increase of childless women and couples in society, but gradually the interest waned. However, in the early 21st century new wave of researchers addressed the problem of childlessness becoming interested not only in the level of ultimate childlessness, but in the consequences of a childless lifestyle. In this article we will present the main approaches to the definition and explanation of the phenomenon of childlessness. The entire article is based on the review of international studies, since Russian demographic and social science studies of childlessness are almost inexisent. The foreign scientific researches of childlessness are many, but most of them are based on theoretical approaches that are consistent with the objective reality of 10-20-years ago. We are seeing a lack of trying comparison phenomenon of childlessness with many other phenomena and areas of human life. A review of existing approaches to the explanation of childlessness, their connection allows us to get a general idea of what stage of scientific understanding and interpretation is the phenomenon of childlessness.