Basic characteristics of the team

The research conducted by the Center for Fertility Studies focuses on an in-depth analysis of reproductive behavior within the Czech population, exploring broader contexts from various perspectives and within both national and international frameworks. The aim is also to apply demographic insights in interdisciplinary collaboration, not only with geographers but also with sociologists and medical professionals. Currently, several research projects are underway within the team.

 

Team

Researches:

  • doc. RNDr. Jiřina Kocourková, Ph.D. 
    (team leader)
  • PhDr. Mgr. Anna Šťastná, Ph.D.
  • RNDr. Jitka Slabá, Ph.D.
  • doc. RNDr. Luděk Šídlo, Ph.D.
  • RNDr. Boris Burcin, Ph.D.
  • RNDr. Olga Kurtinová, Ph.D.

(photography from left: Anna Šťastná, Jiřina Kocourková, Jitka Slabá, Luděk Šídlo, Boris Burcin; Olga Kurtinová is missing).

Ph.D. students:

  • Mgr. Eva Waldaufová (STARS)
  • Mgr. Adéla Volejníková (STARS)
  • Mgr. Bára Idlbeková
  • Mgr. Sylva Chrtková
  • Mgr. Hana Třísková
  • Mgr. Ivana Račáková
  • Khadijeh Asadisarvestani, Ph.D.

External collaborators:

  • doc. MUDr. Tomáš Fait, Ph.D.

 

Projects currently underway

(1) Large Research Infrastructure GGP CZ  - Czech National Family Research Node (2024–2026)

GGP-CZ is a social science Large Research Infrastructures that collects, processes and distributes internationally harmonised data on family and reproductive behaviour.

GGP-CZ is the Czech national node of the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP), which is included in the European Roadmap of Large Research Infrastructures. It is an inter-disciplinary, international, comparative and longitudinal infrastructure that collects, processes, archives, and disseminates data on individual life courses and family dynamics. It applies a cyclical panel design that interviews a new sample of survey respondents each decade and then follows them for up to 6 years through relationships, marriages, parenthood, divorces, deaths and many of the opportunities and challenges that people face along the way.

GGS data is a freely accessible data resource that is valuable for researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders interested in demographic research and family studies and evidence-based policies that can improve societal well-being. Its high-quality, comprehensive data support a wide range of research and policy analyses, helping to address demographic and societal challenges such as declining fertility, family instability, population ageing, work-family reconciliation, and inter-generational conflict.

The GGP-CZ large research infrastructure has two centers located at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno and the Department of Demography and Geodemography, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague.

 

(2) International project COST Action CA21150: Parental Leave Policies and Social Sustainability (Sustainability@Leave) (2022–2026)

We also participate in the international project COST Action CA21150 Parental Leave Policies and Social Sustainability , where J. Kocourková is a member of the Management committee.The aim of the project is to develop research on parental leave measures from a new perspective of social sustainability in the Czech context, to contribute to filling gaps in interdisciplinary research by applying a demographic approach and to deepen cooperation with the International Network on Leave Policies & Research and the Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

(3) The national Institute for Research on Socioeconomic Impacts of Diseases and Systemic Risks (SYRI – Systemic Risk Institute) (2022–2025)

Another one is the SYRI project of the National Institute for Research on Socioeconomic Impacts of Diseases and Systemic Risks where our REPRO team (consisting of J. Kocourková, A. Št'astná, J. Slabá, A. Volejníková and B. Idlbeková) is involved in the PA4 - Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health. The aim is to uncover how new risks and inequalities associated with the impact of the pandemic and subsequent economic crisis affect reproductive health, shape reproductive planning and translate into the implementation of reproductive plans.

 

Research projects solved in 2023:

The Czech Science Foundation (GACR) project (2021–2023), entitled "Demographic Context of Assisted Reproduction in the Czech Republic", was the fourth in a series of projects awarded by the GACCR and thus followed up on the previous three successful projects focused on research on low fertility and delayed fertility into older age of women. The key focus was on "reproductive ageing".  This was also the title of a session at the 50th annual conference of the Czech Demographic Society (15-17 September 2021, Ostrava), where members of the research centre presented their papers. At the end of the project, a session was also organized at the 52nd Annual Conference of the Czech Demographic Society (24-26 May, Hradec Králové) under the title "Demographic Context of Assisted Reproduction".

Members of the CFS at the Czech Demographic Society Conference in Ostrava (September 2021)
First row: Tereza Havelková, Eva Waldaufová, Adéla Volejníková
Second row: Anna Šťastná, Jiřina Kocourková, Boris Burcin; Třetí řada: Jitka Slabá, Luděk Šídlo
 

The TAČR project (2020–2023) entitled "Enrichment of the data base for the development and evaluation of family policy", in which we participated together with Masaryk University in Brno and the Research Institute of Labour and Social Affairs. The main objective of this project was the implementation of the first wave of the large-scale GGS (Generations and Gender Survey), which is part of the major international GGP project (https://www.ggp-i.org/). The comparable data obtained will enable us to participate in international research and to deepen broader cooperation with foreign experts. The data collection was carried out in 2020-2022 under the title Contemporary Czech Family (https://scac.cz/ggp/). Four final research reports have been published (https://ggp-cz.fss.muni.cz), one of which was prepared by our research team:

Kocourková, J., Slabá. J., Šťastná, A., Waldaufová, E., Idlbeková, B. 2023. Změny v reprodukčním chování a reprodukční stárnutí: Souhrnná výzkumná zpráva z šetření „Současná česká rodina 2020–2022“. Praha: Katedra demografie a geodemografie, Přírodovědecká fakulta UK, 244 s.

 

Other recent research projects:

  • 2018-2020 | Transition towards the late childbearing pattern: individual prospects versus societal costs. [Posun rodičovství do vyššího věku: individuální perspektivy versus společenské náklady]. Standard project of Czech Science Foudation. GA18-08013S.
  • 2015–2017 | Risks of childbearing postponement: A new role for family policies? [Rizika odkladu rodičovství: Nová role rodinné politiky?] Standard project of Czech Science Foudation. P404-15-09443S.
  • 2012–2014 | Is the low fertility in the Czech Republic an inevitable outcome of the new reproductive pattern? [Stane se nízká plodnost v ČR trvalým reprodukčním modelem?] Standard project of Czech Science Foudation. P404/12/1097.
  • 2019–2020 | Unemployment as a cause of fertility postponement [Nezaměstnanost jako příčina odkladu plodnosti]. Charles University Grant Agency, No. 378219.

Within the framework of research projects, we successfully involve our students in research, who can work on selected topics in their bachelor's, master's or dissertation theses. The following theses have already been successfully defended at the department:

Ph.D. theses

  • Jitka Slabá: Časování plodnosti napříč generacemi českých žen narozených v letech 1966–1990 (Fertility timing across the Czech women, the 1966–1990 generations) (2021)

Master´s theses

  • Kateřina Martínková: Asistovaná reprodukce – vliv na plodnost a vybrané charakteristiky novorozenců v Česku (Assisted reproduction – influence on fertility and selected characteristics of newborns in Czechia) (magisterská práce, 2021)
    • 1st place in the competition of the Czech Demographic Society (ČDS) for the best qualifying thesis in the field of Demography or other related field in the category of master's theses
  • Hana Třísková: Plodnost v Rusku v období 2000–2018 se zaměřením na druhé a vyšší pořadí narození v kontextu ekonomických podmínek a rodinné politiky (Fertility in Russia in the period 2000–2018 with a focus on the second and higher birth order in the context of economic conditions and family policy) (2022)
  • Eva Waldaufová: Asistovaná reprodukce v Česku: sociodemografické souvislosti vybraných léčebných metod (Assisted reproduction in Czechia: sociodemographic context of selected treatment methods) (2022)
    • 1st place in the competition of the Czech Demographic Society (ČDS) for the best qualifying thesis in the field of Demography or other related field in the category of master's theses
  • Adéla Volejníková: Česko jako cílová země přeshraniční reprodukční péče (Czechia as a target country for cross-border reproductive care) (2023)
    • 2nd place in the competition of the Czech Demographic Society (ČDS) for the best qualifying thesis in the field of Demography or other related field in the category of master's theses
  • Bára Idlbeková: Porovnání interrupčního a antikoncepčního chování v roce 2009 a 2019 ve vybraných evropských zemích (Comparison of abortion and contraceptive behaviour in 2009 and 2019 in selected European countires) (2023)
  • Ivana Račáková: Plodnost během pandemie covid-19 se zaměřením na Česko (Fertility during the covid-19 pandemic with a focus on Czechia) (2024)
  • Anetta Paučinová: Otcové v českých rodinách a domácnostech se zaměřením na pečující otce [Fathers in Czech families and households with a focus on caring fathers] (2024)

Bachelor theses

  • Eva Waldaufová: Reprodukční stárnutí a jeho odraz v porodnické praxi (Reproductive ageing and its reflection in obstetrics in Czechia) (2020)
  • Tereza Havelková: Odlišnosti ve struktuře matek a jejich novorozenců narozených v Česku v roce 2014 s ohledem na využívání metody IVF (Differences in the structure of mothers and their newborn children born in Czechia in 2014 related to the use of the IVF method) (2020)
  • Sylvie Chrtková: Názorové změny českých žen na manželství a mateřství v kontextu měnícího se reprodukčního chování a podílu vzdělaných žen na přelomu tisíciletí (Opinion changes of Czech women on marriage and motherhood in the context of changing reproductive behavior and the share of educated women at the turn of the millennium) (2021)
  • Adéla Volejníková: Asistovaná reprodukce z pohledu přeshraniční reprodukční péče (Assited reproduction from the perspective of cross-border reproductive care) (2021)
  • Bára Idlbeková: Potratovost v kontextu nízké plodnosti: vývoj v Česku a na Slovensku po roce 1993 (Abortions in the context of low fertility: development of abortions in Czechia and Slovakia after 1993 (2021)
  • Eva-Marie Zetová: Plodnost žen ve věku 35 a více let ve vybraných zemích Evropy (Fertility of women aged 35 and over in selected European countries) (2023)
  • Tereza Janotová: Bezdětnost v socio-demografické perspektivě v České republice (Childlessness in socio-demographic perspective in the Czech Republic) (2023)