Childless and One-Child Families in the Soviet Union

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Abstract
Soviet authorities have recently initiated a demographic policy aimed particularly at reducing the levels of childless and one-child families. An examination of available data indicates that the USSR has a level of childlessness equivalent to that of the United States, but a frequency of one-child families that is considerably greater. Popular explanations for very low fertility, such as inadequate housing or finances, do not explain the decision to remain childless or to stop childbearing after a single child is born. Furthermore, the effects of education and female labor force participation are mediated by cultural factors. It is these cultural factors that seem to differentiate among zero-, one-, and two-child families. In the Soviet case, the most appropriate policy tool for intervention in such cultural processes is propaganda, but such a value-transformation approach is more complex and unpredictable than a structural approach. Nevertheless, a structural explanation for fertility decline is inadequate for this situation.

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