Large family

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Multi-child family , even more children family refers to a family with at least three children . Often the term large family is only used from the fourth child onwards. There are different approaches as to which reference value is relevant to define having a large number of children. A demographic approach often counts the biological children of a woman, a man or a couple. A family sociological approach often focuses on households and relates to the children living there at a certain point in time. A large family is one of the possible forms of a nuclear family or nuclear family , but also of stepfamilies .

Definitions

With the terms large family and large numbers of children , problems arise with regard to the use of the term as with the term childlessness . In the narrowest sense of the word, the term multi-child family includes the underage children of a couple who live in the same household as their custodians . In broader definitions, the calculation of the number of children in a family also includes sons and daughters of a couple who have not (yet) moved out of the family household and who have now reached legal age. Single parents with several children can also form large families , but are not considered to be “families” in all contexts.

For a long time it was suggested in publications that only heterosexual couples living together or even only married couples could represent the older generation in large families. In general, however, beginning in the Schröder era , the view that “family is where there are children” has prevailed in Germany . According to this definition z. For example, children who grow up in SOS Children's Villages also form a large family with the adults they live with.

Especially when looking at history and less developed countries, it should be borne in mind that the term multi-child family only includes children living in one household at the same time. With a relatively high child mortality rate , the number of children born to their mother is often higher than that of children who are still alive. Also "shrink" with the above. The narrowest definition of large families apparently when a young person living in the household turns 18, even if his parents are still entitled to receive child benefit .

Statistical relationships

Proportion of married couples with 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and more children, by year of marriage (Germany or FRG, 1900–1972) - status: 1983

In Germany, the decline in the large family is considered to be the most important cause of the decline in the birth rate . Germany shows a greater decline in families with more than two children than other countries.

Statistical number of households by number of children in Germany (daughters and sons of legal age are not considered "children") Statistical number of households by number of children in Germany

In almost all developed countries, the proportion of families with three or more underage children in the household is over 3% ( 14% in Ireland , 7% in the US and 6% in France ). Only in Italy and Spain is this proportion 3%.

Large numbers of children and religion

Families with more than two children are particularly common among religious people. Sometimes the connection between religiosity and the number of children was explained by the fact that the poor or the uneducated are particularly religious and that they have a particularly large number of children. As a study by Blume, Ramsel and Graupner shows, religiosity is decisive for the number of children especially among the rich and educated. According to the researchers, this can be explained well with Herwig Birg's biographical fertility theory. Birg points out that with technical, economic, and ultimately also social and political progress, a growing "biographical universe" with more and more options is emerging. The wealthy and educated would have a particularly large number of choices:

“Anyone who lives in a developed country, is wealthy, educated and free has an enormous“ biographical universe ”of opportunities. Those who do not want to have these chances and freedoms restricted by religious observance (anymore) will often decide against the corresponding loss of options by a larger crowd of children. "

Most religions are pronatalistic in nature . Nevertheless, couples refrain from starting a large family, as their religion requires.

Abundance of children and social class

A study in Baden-Wuerttemberg produced the following result: There are particularly high numbers of children among couples without school and vocational training, couples with a medium level of education have a below-average number of children and couples with the highest level of education are on average often. Three-child families are relatively common among academics. Mothers and fathers of three-child families have significantly better school and professional qualifications than mothers and fathers of four or more children. 3% of women with two children, 6% of women with three children and 15% of women with four or more children do not have completed school education, 20% of women with two children and 28% of women with three have no completed vocational training Children and even 45% of women with four or more children. The fathers of many children also often have no school or vocational training. 2% of the fathers of two children, 5% of the fathers of three children and 11% of the fathers of four or more children do not have a school leaving certificate. 12% of the fathers of two children, 15% of the fathers of three children and 28% of the fathers of four children have no professional qualifications. On the other hand, having a large number of children is particularly common among fathers who are self-employed, freelancers or in management positions, and it is rare among workers. The resource “school and vocational training” is distributed significantly more differently among large parents than among parents with one or two children.

According to the 2008 microcensus , mothers with a low level of education have the largest families; 39% of all mothers with a low level of education have three or more children, but this only applies to 21% of mothers with a medium level of education and 19% of mothers with a high level of education (in These statistics only include women who have had children at all. Childless are not considered).

Wealth of children and age when starting a family

Large mothers were on average younger than their female counterparts when their first child was born. While mothers of only children were on average 30 years old and mothers of two children were on average 27 years old when their first child was born, mothers of three children were on average 25 years old and mothers of four or more children were on average only 23 Year old.

Abundance of children and place of residence

Having a large number of children also depends on where you live and is generally more common in rural areas than in cities. Among the big cities, Duisburg and Dortmund are the ones where the largest families live. In contrast, the smallest families live in Dresden and Leipzig. There are also big differences between the federal states, for example in Baden-Württemberg almost 21% of women have many children, in Saxony-Anhalt this is just under 9%.

Causes of a high number of children in a family

Reasons to start a large family

Child psychologists see the advantages of a large family in the more diverse family social relationships and the "self-care" of the children. For example, older children learn to be considerate of their younger siblings and to give them help, and there is never a lack of playmates. Smaller tasks (“taking care”) are often taken over by the older siblings. In addition, the (older) children are often encouraged to take on household chores and thereby relieve the parents. Since children in a large family perceive themselves as part of a whole, they are generally much more independent. On the one hand they are more willing to compromise, as their everyday life also requires "backing off", "sharing" and "accepting", on the other hand they learn to argue and assert themselves through assertiveness in the family. It is reported from practice that siblings get to know facets of life together that "no childcare in the world could offer". It is also regularly emphasized that parents of several children gain composure. The possibility of multiple uses of clothes, toys, books or furniture also results in economic and ecological advantages.

Reasons against starting a large family

In a study by the Robert Bosch Foundation, parents were able to give reasons against having other children. Multiple answers were possible. The most common reason cited against having more children was the fact that either their own job or that of their partner was unsafe (63% agreed). 51% said they did not want any more children because they thought too much about their future. 50% said they didn't want children because they wanted to maintain their current standard of living. 39% said that they would not be able to enjoy life as much as before with another child. 39% feared that having a child would be too expensive. 37% feared they would have to give up their leisure interests. 29% said they or their partner were too old. 28% said having another child would not be compatible with their work, 26% complained that their partner was against it and 20% feared that there was not enough time for the partnership. 12% said having another child would bind them too much to their partner. 10% stated that their state of health would not allow another child and 7% did not want another child because their partnership did not work as they imagined.

Effects of having a large number of children on those affected

Influence of the number of siblings
on the number of points achieved in the LAU
Sibling number Average Number of cases
no 72.9 1559
1 71.5 4266
2 67.7 2010
3 62.8 0684
4th 57.0 0268
5 56.9 0115
6th 49.6 0044
7 and more 49.0 0058

Psychological aspects

Origin from a large family is often seen in psychology as a risk factor for child development. However, there are cases where a large number of siblings can act as a protective factor. For example, Vietnamese boat people in the USA found that their children were more productive the more siblings they had. The role of the family is collectivist in Vietnamese culture. The desires of the individual are less important than the needs of the family as a group. Older siblings are expected to help their younger siblings with their homework. Children not only learn facts from their siblings, but also academic strategies and values. Often, children who are not yet of school age learn through play by watching their older siblings.

These study results are in contrast to the results of studies carried out in European communities. In European communities, children from small families tend to be the best performers. As the Hamburg study of the starting point of learning (LAU) found, children from large families have worse starting conditions at the beginning of their schooling than children from small families. When interpreting these results, it should be noted that the number of siblings is very much influenced by the ethnic origin of the family. More than half of the children with more than five siblings are of foreign origin. The influence of family size also covers performance gaps, which are more likely to be attributed to the special socio-cultural situation of immigrant children, and the relationship between the number of siblings and children's skills cannot simply be traced back to the inadequate education of large parents. So it is not a sham correlation. At the same time, coming from a large family has a particularly negative effect on those coming from an uneducated home. In families in which the mothers either do not have a school leaving certificate (r = −0.15) or have a secondary school leaving certificate (r = −0.18), the stress associated with an increasing number of children is more clearly reflected in the test performance contrary to the others (secondary school: r = −0.09; advanced technical college entrance qualification: r = −0.02; high school diploma: r = −0.07). This could be because there are resources (such as money) in educated households that can absorb the negative effects of having large numbers of children, but not in uneducated households.

economic aspects

In many countries, such as Germany, Austria and Poland, large families are particularly at risk of poverty . In 2000, for example, 42% of children in households with three or more children in Germany lived in poverty. Children from large families are also particularly often affected by multiple deprivation . In 2000 the AWO classified 33% of the children in families with three or more children (but only 14% of the children in smaller families) as having multiple deprivation.

Couple households with three or more children with 12% receive SGB ​​II benefits about twice as often as smaller couple families (as of 2010).

The child allowance introduced on January 1, 2005 (in Germany) can be granted to families whose parental income is insufficient to cover the entire family needs and, according to the Seventh Family Report, mainly benefits large families.

Individual financial reductions are (or were aimed) exclusively or primarily at large families. The child benefit introduced in 1955 was initially only granted to families with three or more children, as was the Wuermeling , which existed from 1955 to 1999, for reduced-cost train tickets. Family discounts in museums, zoos or swimming pools, on the other hand, are often only valid for up to three children.

In France , large families are particularly encouraged, for example through family splitting under tax law. 75% of French mothers with two children and 51% of mothers with three or more children are employed. In particular, French family policy reduces the poverty rates of large families, families with a migrant background and families with children under three.

Significance of the number of children per couple for population development

The number of large families is an important factor for global population growth as well as for the population decline in the individual states. When looking for the reasons for a low fertility rate in a country, not only the proportion of (lifelong) childless persons can be observed (this is not higher in Germany than in the USA), but also the proportion of families with three or more children.

Discrimination against large families

The “structural recklessness towards the family”, which Franz-Xaver Kaufmann criticized as early as the early 1990s, has a greater impact on large families - although the experiences of large parents are not generally negative. The picture that the parents interviewed by Kaufmann gave is mixed. There can be no question of general and all-encompassing discrimination in everyday life. Occasionally, discriminatory statements by passers-by or in the neighborhood are mentioned, which indicate a certain lack of understanding and ignorance of the large number of children. Hostility towards children manifests itself to a greater extent towards large children, sometimes also in the form of sexually tinged innuendos.

In an "Opinion on the draft law for the implementation of European anti-discrimination directives" of March 7, 2005, the German Family Association criticized the lack of provisions on the "disadvantage because of the upbringing of children for the reasons listed in § 1 of the Anti-Discrimination Act" and demands "A corresponding consideration in Article 3 of the draft law".

Housing area

“The neglect of families' concerns when it comes to access to living space is particularly evident. The problems when looking for a rental apartment are among the most painful experiences of disadvantage in everyday life, especially for large families. These families are neither taken into account nor supported by the anti-discrimination law in its current form. Because if you as tenants lose out to people interested in housing without children, in most cases the reason for rejection is neither ethnic origin, gender or religion, nor a disability, age or sexual identity. They are simply rejected because the landlord or the neighbors do not want to tolerate lively children in the house. "

Work area

In addition, the German Family Association fears that the Anti-Discrimination Act could even cause harm to large families, namely through the causal relationship established in Section 3:

“Particularly with a view to labor law and the labor market, it becomes clear that the deduced consideration of the disadvantage of mothers in § 3 reverses the actual situation: Mothers are not disadvantaged in the labor market because they are women. Rather, women are disadvantaged because they are mothers or could become mothers. The disadvantage of parents in the labor market does not depend on gender, but on the fact that they have taken on responsibility for children. "

Social transfers area

In connection with the Rosa Rees case, the Federal Constitutional Court coined the term “transfer exploitation” in its “ rubble women judgment” of July 7, 1992. Rosa Rees had raised nine children after the Second World War and received a monthly pension of DM 260 in 1986 . At the same time, their nine children together paid more than DM 8,000 per month to the pension insurance . The reason for this discrepancy explains Jürgen Borchert follows "So the pension system at a disadvantage, especially mothers of large families with correspondingly short careers because they receive very low pensions." Similar effects are also available in other branches of social security, in the long-term care and even in the health insurance . "Because the health costs of a pensioner from retirement to death are already statistically around eight times the costs of a child from birth to the age of 20, despite the 'family support' (i.e. the so-called non-contributory co-insurance) In the end, contrary to public opinion, a 'transfer exploitation of families' is taking place in the statutory health insurance as well, ”said Borchert.

Discrimination through State Action

There is discrimination against large families if support measures are made dependent on both parents being gainfully employed, as this condition becomes more and more difficult to meet with increasing family size.

Example: after-school care scheme in Lower Austria

A prerequisite for the granting of after-school care in Lower Austria is that both parents are gainfully employed. However, this is practically impossible for large families with children from pre-school to secondary school. So the possibility of having children looked after in a day- care center, especially parents with one child, a maximum of two children, benefits.

Example: The dispute over parental benefit and child benefit in Germany

In a hearing before the Committee on Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (Committee Document 16 (13) 81g) , Christian Seiler puts forward the thesis that the parental allowance is unconstitutional because the state incentivizes parents in an impermissible way that violates Article 6 of the Basic Law Regarding gainful employment: "[T] he discrimination against the single-income family [disadvantages] large families in the parental allowance is in fact particularly high, because they often cannot do without the exclusive family work of one parent and may not want to do so in view of their family-friendly attitude. The particular employment-related rationality of parental allowance therefore typically excludes large families from this measure of 'family support' precisely because of their decision to have families. "

For the first time, the parental allowance scheme gave men an incentive to leave working life temporarily, a risk that was previously negligible for employers in Germany (before 2007 only a maximum of 2% of all men left working life because of paternity); it is therefore an instrument against discrimination against women as (potential) mothers on the labor market.

Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen called for a significant increase in child benefit for the third child and all subsequent children in a family. The way of encouraging previously childless people to have a (second) child by reducing the opportunity costs caused by a child has proven to be unproductive. So far, the state has not responded sufficiently to inhibitions about having a third or fourth child, although some couples are quite willing to do so. A first step in promoting this willingness must be an increase in child benefit (204 euros for the third child, 229 euros for all other children).

Ability to influence the number of children per couple from outside

The study by the Robert Bosch Foundation also looked into the extent to which a pro-natalistic policy could be successful in Germany. It turned out that large numbers of children wanted more money from politics. 90% of those with many children would like material help. People who have only one child, on the other hand, want a more family-friendly infrastructure than those with many children. Childcare options are less popular than others:

“Apparently, couples with one child are most likely to try to reconcile work and family. The decision to have a first or second child could therefore be encouraged by expanding the range of childcare options. For families with two or more children, on the other hand, the availability of childcare no longer seems to be of paramount importance; probably because one of the two partners - mostly the mother - does not work at all or works part-time. "

The desire for more flexible working hours, on the other hand, was very pronounced among all respondents. According to the study, pronatalistic measures could be quite successful.

“The politicians are pleased with the assessment of 80 percent of women who (further) wish to have children that implementing their preferred family policy measures would make it easier for them to have as many children as they would like. 78 percent would "probably decide to have a (further) child" if the services they preferred were introduced. "

Method critique

Data from official statistics in Germany cannot fully reflect the reality of large families. For example, it only records how many children they have born for women, but not how many children they have had for men. Therefore, on the basis of this data, it can only be stated for women how many women with many children there are. The microcensus records children in the household, regardless of whether they are biological, stepchildren or adopted children. This shows how many large families there are for households. However, children outside the household are not recorded. Large population surveys , such as the socio-economic panel , pairfam or the national education panel , allow conclusions to be drawn about the number of people and families with many children.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Martin Bujard, Uta Brehm, Detlev Lück, Linda Lux, Norbert F. Schneider, Harun Sulak: Large families in Germany. Discontinued model or life plan for the future? Federal Institute for Population Research, p. 48 , accessed on June 28, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Volker Thomas: Family sociology "Where there are children, there is family" . Interview with Jürgen Dorbritz . Goethe Institute Lithuania. November 2012
  3. ↑ Nicola Brüning / Henning Krumrey: “Family is where there are children” . Interview with Christine Bergmann . Focus Magazine November 16, 1998
  4. ↑ Data source: Bernd Camphausen: Effects of demographic processes on professions and costs in the health care system . Springer, Berlin a. a. 1983, ISBN 978-3-540-12694-2 , pp. 30 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
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  8. ^ A b René Pfister : Family Policy: Many children, no job. In: Der Spiegel. Issue 20/2008, May 10, 2008, p. 29.
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  11. ↑ Bernd Eggen, Harald Leschhorn: Many children and education . ( Memento from March 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Statistical monthly magazine Baden-Württemberg. 7/2004. (PDF; 74 kB)
  12. ↑ Federal Statistical Office: Microcensus 2008 - New data on childlessness in Germany p. 29.
  13. ↑ Federal Statistical Office. 2012. Birth trends and family situation in Germany, p. 23.
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  16. ↑ Advantages of a large family. June 4, 2019, accessed June 5, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Katharina Weiner: A third child: why not? - derStandard.at. June 2, 2019, accessed June 5, 2019 (Austrian German).
  18. ^ Elisabeth Müller: The large family should be a social model. In: tagesspiegel.de. September 21, 2019, accessed June 5, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Janosch Niebuhr: Mine, yours, our things. In: FAZ. August 23, 2018, accessed June 5, 2019 (German).
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  21. ↑ Sabine Winkler, Marius Gelhausen: Resilienz . Technische Universität Darmstadt, January 29, 2007  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.tu-darmstadt.de
  22. ^ Nathan Caplan et al: Indochinese Refugee Families and Academic Achievement. In: Scientific American. February 1992, pp. 18-24.
  23. ↑ Hamburger Bildungsserver: Aspects of the initial learning situation and learning development.
  24. ↑ Seventh Family Report - Family between Flexibility and Reliability - Perspectives for a Life Course- Related Family Policy and Statement by the Federal Government. (PDF; 2.9 MB) April 26, 2006, accessed April 6, 2008 .
  25. ↑ Data & facts. (No longer available online.) In: Salzburger Nachrichten. February 9, 2004, formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 6, 2008 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.salzburg.com  
  26. ^ Elzbieta Tarkowska: Child poverty and social exclusion in Poland. (Translation from the English by Rudolph Müllan). In: Margherita Zander: Child poverty. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-531-14450-2 , p. 36.
  27. ↑ Beate Hock, Gerda Holz, Werner Wüstendörfer: Early consequences - long-term consequences? Poverty and disadvantage in preschool age. AWO-ISS, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-88493-151-2 , p. 46.
  28. ↑ Beate Hock, Gerda Holz, Werner Wüstendörfer: Early consequences - long-term consequences? Poverty and disadvantage in preschool age. AWO-ISS, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-88493-151-2 , p. 88, Figure 21.
  29. ↑ David Juncke, Melanie Henkel: multi-child families in Germany. Dossier. BMFSFJ, December 2013, accessed on August 10, 2019 . P. 49. Quoted there from: DIW short data report “Families in Germany” 2012 based on FID 2010 and SOEP 2010.
  30. ↑ P. XXXIII Seventh Family Report .
  31. ↑ The Planet of the Other Mothers. France: Women like to have children - because they can still work and don't have to feel guilty about it. In: Spiegel Special: Young in Mind - The Chances of an Aging Society. 8/2006, pp. 76-77.
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  33. ↑ cf. the study by Hans Bertram: Sustainable family policy. Securing the future through a triad of time policy, financial transfer policy and infrastructure policy. Expert opinion, p. 12, Figure 2.
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  35. ↑ Kurt P. Bierschock: Large families - an overview. In: The Online Family Handbook. Archived from the original on March 15, 2008 ; Retrieved April 22, 2008 .
  36. ↑ a b c Statement by the German Family Association on the draft law for the implementation of European anti-discrimination guidelines. March 7, 2005, accessed May 4, 2008 .
  37. ↑ Constitutional mandate for family justice ( memento of February 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on: bpb.de
  38. ↑ AKNÖ (Lower Austria Chamber of Labor): After-school support discriminates against multi-child and migrant families October 2, 2007.
  39. ↑ - ( Memento of January 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) p. 10.
  40. ↑ Answer of the Federal Government to the small question of the MPs Jörn Wunderlich, Klaus Ernst, Karin Binder, other MPs and the parliamentary group DIE LINKE. - Printed matter 16/5003 - from April 26, 2007
  41. ^ Heike Lipinski: Parental allowance for a year. First figures on satisfaction and utilization. ( Memento from March 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Statistical monthly magazine Baden-Württemberg. 4/2008.
  42. ↑ Charlotte Höhn, Andreas Ette, Kerstin Ruckdeschel: Desires for children in Germany - consequences for a sustainable family policy . Federal Institute for Population Research, pp. 46/47.
  43. ↑ Charlotte Höhn, Andreas Ette, Kerstin Ruckdeschel: Desires for children in Germany - consequences for a sustainable family policy . Federal Institute for Population Research, p. 47.
  44. ↑ Charlotte Höhn, Andreas Ette, Kerstin Ruckdeschel: Desires for children in Germany - consequences for a sustainable family policy . Federal Institute for Population Research, p. 63.

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