(Finance) – In Italy, almost 1 in 3 young people shows “a palpable hesitation” compared to the hypothesis of become a parent without the guarantee of a collective safety net capable of solving daily worries. This is what emerges from the research “For a demographic Spring” made by Magna Carta Foundation with the aim of investigating the causes of the birth rate decline and the negative trend in births, presented today in Rome in the presence of the Minister for the Family, Birthrate and Equal Opportunities, Eugenia Roccella, of the Undersecretary for Economy and Finance Lucia Albano and of the Extraordinary Commissioner Sisma 2016 Guido Castelli.
A. participated in the research sample of 1072 people divided between young people (up to 28 years) and adults, plus some specific categories, such as teachers, health workers and psychologists.
The first part of the research investigated the reasons why they don’t have more childrenthe second explored the good corporate welfare practices that companies implement to promote maternity, paternity, conciliation and in general the well-being of workers.
Because young people don’t have children
Among the main reasons why people no longer have children is the older age and the logic of postponing parental choice. Then there are economic concerns among the significant factors why they do not have children, with adults giving a higher rating (9 out of 10) to this motivation than young people (6 out of 10).
Even the limitations related to career and personal time they represent a strong motivation for not having children and seem to demonstrate an internal conflict between the desire for personal affirmation and the choice of parenthood. The adult women they rate the fear of pregnancy to a greater extent than young people (7.5 out of 10).
A negative influence is also exerted by “personal beliefs” (8 out of 10 for both age groups), which highlights how the attitude towards parenthood has changed in a part of the young population.
“With the research For a Demographic Spring, the Magna Carta Foundation wanted to carry out a quantitative and qualitative investigation on the root causes of the decline in births in Italy, highlighting in particular how economic and work reasons that hinder the choice to bring children into the world alongside fears, resistance and new fragilities“, explains Gaetano Quagliariello, President of the Magna Carta Foundation.
“To respond to this challenge – he adds – we want to offer a new model of partnership between public and private in which institutions can support companies involved in paths useful for promoting births and parenthood. By virtue of this, the Foundation has developed a series of proposals inspired by good business practices identified in the search – give it nurseries spread to babysitting voucherfrom the mechanisms of decontribution to the tax credit for companies planning investments in conciliation – already brought to the attention of the political decision maker”.
“One is needed long-term policy with the collaboration of institutions, territories and companies to reverse the data on the decline in births. The objective is on the one hand to give social value to motherhood and fatherhood and on the other to encourage that desire for the future which nevertheless persists in young people”, he maintains Annamaria ParenteProject Leader For a Demographic Spring and Coordinator of the Health and Welfare Area – Science and Person of the Scientific Committee of the Magna Carta Foundation.
The second part of the research concerned the corporate welfare measures to support birth ratesand was created with the collaboration of companies such as JOINTLY, Engineering, WellMakers by BNP-Paribas and Prysmian Group, representing over 30 thousand employees with almost 900 operational offices nationwide. Furthermore, we made use of the collaboration of six other companies operating in the food distribution, cosmetics and clothing sectors.
Give it smart working to the programs of childcareup to the different forms of prenatal and postnatal carewelfare initiatives today aim to mitigate psychological pressure of working parents, allowing them to better balance their life and work time. The analysis of the data collected highlights a growing trend among companies to improve employee well-beingwhile birth support emerges as a significant aspect in welfare policies.
What seems most urgent, at least with respect to the objectives of this research, is to be able to productively combine public policies with corporate welfare programs more extensive and innovative, focused not only on economic benefits but on a broader idea of personal well-being, and therefore on diversified and customizable services with important implications from a social point of view.
For this reason the Magna Carta Foundation has formulated a series of policy proposals together with partner companies, asking them to enhance the experience of the so-called “widespread nursery schools” or “proximity”possibly to be integrated with a “babysitting voucher” provided by companies to employee families. A third proposal concerns public/private initiatives to partially or totally reduce the cost of summer camps. As regards policies on parental leave, the objective should be to stabilize this measure, consolidating it compared to the measures taken in the last economic measure. Also the tax credit it should be extended when companies demonstrate that they know how to plan incremental or additional investments expressly aimed at supporting reconciliation, birth rates and parenthood. On the side of smart working, it is of fundamental importance not to lose the value of a more agile and flexible working time culture, based on the alternation between presence and distance. The appeal to the world of institutions and politics is to conceive long-term actionsof the system, invent new solutions, such as European budget policies in which demography is understood as an investment and not just as a cost.