The association between belief in God and fertility desires in Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

The association between religiosity and fertility has been extensively investigated, and the virtually unanimous finding is that in the United States,1 in Spain2 and in Europe generally,3,4 women who identify themselves as religious have higher fertility intentions and bear more children than others. Prior literature in this area has been largely empirical, providing little in the way of theorizing as to why these relationships exist.5 Rather, researchers have generally referred to a nexus of pronatalist beliefs and norms, citing, for example, “traditional religious teachings [that] advocate life in a sound traditional family with many children,”4(p.272) “the [strong] association between religion and conservative family values,”1(p.1180) and “the high value the Church places on family.”2(p.207) The assumptions embedded in these generalizations are perhaps one reason why most empirical analyses of the religiosity-fertility connection have focused on religions that have explicitly pronatalist doctrines.5 However, there has been some theorizing about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Goldscheider hypothesizes that religion influences fertility through two central mechanisms: social characteristics of the religious group and particularistic theology.6 The earliest literature emphasized the particularistic explanation. For example, connections between specific theological principles and fertility attitudes and outcomes have been drawn in the case of Catholics,7,8 Mormons9 and indigenous African tribes.10 McQuillan argues that the emphasis on theological particulars is too narrow, and that the influence of religion on fertility should be analyzed more holistically, taking into account the social, cultural and psychological dimensions of a denomination; this perspective treats religion not just as a set of regulations, but as a sociocultural grouping with a host of informal yet specific norms and values.11 While these norms and values may interact with the theology, they are conceptually distinct and may influence fertility even in the absence of codified pronatalist theological injunctions. More specifically, McQuillan posits that a religious organization influences fertility once three conditions are met: The religion has specific fertility-related norms, has the ability to promote these norms among its followers and forms a core social identity for its followers.11 McQuillan still ascribes differential fertility to denomination-specific characteristics, just to nontheological ones. Generalizing the effect even more, Hayford and Morgan argue that the culture of religion in the United States in general is associated with a broad, family-centered socio-cultural outlook.1 They posit that this outlook, more than specific doctrines or denomination-specific culture, is responsible for the religiosity-fertility connection. However, there may be more to the story. While religion in general does tend to emphasize pronatalist, family-centered lifestyles and behaviors, this characteristic should not be assumed to tell the whole story simply because it presents a prima facie plausible explanation. Indeed, prior literature may “oversimplify how conservative religious traditions might affect family life.”12(p.179) Additionally, prior literature has focused exclusively on formal, institutional variations of religion, whose communities and shared practices might help to disseminate and reinforce family-centric frameworks and, more specifically, pronatalist norms. More individuated, less-structured religious beliefs, however, have received little or no attention as correlates of fertility. Examining the association between metaphysical beliefs, and not just institutional religious involvement, and fertility norms helps tease out whether some of the connection is attributable to more psychological, personal variables. Specifically, the hypothesis tested here is that a metaphysical belief correlated with religion—a belief in God—is independently associated with pronatalist attitudes.