Childlessness of Thai Women: Cohort Patterns, Insight Perceptions, and Future Prospects

Seminar no. 1226
26 July 2023 Time 12.30 – 13.30 hrs.

Speaker: Ms.Nitchakarn Kaewbuadee

Childlessness is often characterized as the absence of biological children or the failure to have children due to medical challenges, involuntary dilemma, preference, or choice perspective. However, the term “childlessness” has found to be vary among studies and has indefinite conclusions on the pathways to childlessness. Childlessness is a significant population phenomenon and that has been identified as one of the demographic transitions. Currently, the trends towards childlessness are rapidly spreading across Europe as well as several Southeast Asia countries such as Thailand. Thai women’s cohort childlessness rates have been seen to rise with time, as has the number of childless couples particularly in urban area. Thailand’s fertility rates have been dropping for over five decades and remain below replacement. However, emerging issues such as childlessness, which may contribute to the Thailand’s low fertility level, have received little attention. Therefore, this study would aim to investigate (1) the levels of childlessness among women born between different cohorts and how do it differ across their background characteristics (2) the insight perceptions towards childlessness from various perspectives, and (3) the future trends of childlessness among recent cohort of women. This study aims to use a mixed-methods approach by employing both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative objectives will be to investigate through various secondary data sources available in Thailand and employ suitable population modelling method. The qualitative objective will be to gather insights information through in-depth interviews. This study’s findings could help fill a gap in the country’s family formation policy in terms of parenting responsibilities, work-family balance, and infertility treatments, to better facilitate couples and raising/maintaining fertility levels. In this seminar, any suggestions, comments, or inputs from the audiences are welcome and appreciated.

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