Study: Estonia ranks among Europe's most conservative countries in family attitudes

An international team of researchers has found that Estonians' attitudes towards family life choices are surprisingly conservative, with divorce among parents of young children and mothers' early return to work opposed more than in Poland and Slovenia. The study is based on responses from over 60,000 people across 21 European countries and was published in Population and Development Review. Education level affects family attitudes only in some questions, but particularly little in Estonia.

An international team of researchers, which included Tallinn University guest scholar Katrin Schwanitz, has reached a striking conclusion: Estonia ranks among Europe's most conservative countries in terms of family attitudes, despite the fact that the country's policies supporting the reconciliation of family and work life are strong and cohabitation is an everyday phenomenon.

What did the study show?

The analysis is based on responses from more than 60,000 people across 21 European countries, collected in 2006 and 2018. The research group, made up of scholars from Finnish and UK universities, found that while cohabitation is generally considered acceptable across Europe, attitudes towards voluntary childlessness and divorce among families with young children are significantly more critical.

In Eastern Europe, nearly 40 per cent of respondents disapprove of divorce between parents of 12-year-old children, while in Southern Europe opposition remains below a quarter. Estonia, however, stands out with its cautious attitudes even in this context: together with Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia, Estonia belongs to the group of more conservative countries according to the study.

Education plays a role, but not always

One of the central questions in the study was whether education level influences people's attitudes towards family life choices. It turned out that this is only the case in some areas. More highly educated people are significantly more accepting of both divorce among parents of young children and full-time employment for young mothers.

At the same time, full-time employment for men in analogous situations is considered natural in almost all countries and education groups, which points to a clear gender double standard. According to the researchers, the scepticism towards mothers working that is prevalent among less educated women may be related to the fact that their potential loss of income from staying at home is relatively smaller than for highly educated women.

Estonia's distinctive feature

In Estonia's case, it is noteworthy that higher education does not significantly change local people's attitudes. Although family-work life reconciliation policies are strong in Estonia and children born outside marriage are an everyday occurrence, this does not reflect in the general attitudes of the population as clearly as might be expected.

As an interesting observation, the study also revealed that in Southern and Eastern Europe, the effect of education on attitudes towards cohabitation and extra-marital children has diminished over time: less educated populations have become increasingly accepting of these lifestyles, while the initially higher approval among the highly educated has slightly declined over the observed period.

The study was published in the international journal Population and Development Review.