The Birth Sample Survey was carried out for the first time in 2002.
The sample consists of 50,408 births enrolled at the Population Registers between the second half of 2000 and the first half of 2001 (July 2000-June 2001), representing around 10 per cent of the total resident births registered in that period.
Mothers were interviewed through the C.A.T.I. technique (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview), about 18-21 months after delivery.
The data collection was based on two questionnaires: a short form and a long form. The former was given to the entire sample and allows representative estimates on a regional level, whereas the latter was given to only one third of the sample (around 17.000 women), guaranteeing representation on a wider territorial level.
The short form questionnaire collects the main socio-demographic information on the new born, the parents and the delivery. The main results are released in the section Statistical tables – Main results of the short form.
The long form questionnaire contains further sections about mothers’ working conditions before and after childbearing, the household composition, the formal and informal childcare networks and the division of household chores. Thus, it represents a precious source for studying important aspects as the interaction between maternity and mothers’ participation to labour market, compatibility between family and work, the lack of facilities for children. These information are relevant both to understand the recent Italian fertility dynamics and to individuate suitable policy measures for helping parents.
Preliminary results of the long form were presented at the Conference Istat-Cnel “Maternity and participation of women to labour market” held in Rome, 2nd December 2003. The papers presented are published on Cnel (2005), “Maternità e partecipazione delle donne al mercato del lavoro. Tra vincoli e strategie di conciliazione”, Atti – Documenti n.49 (see the section “Papers””).
Further information on the characteristics and the contents of the survey are in “The first birth sample survey: characteristics and contents”. Objectives, methodology and results are deeply described in a forthcoming Istat publication. The dataset of the survey can be requested at the Istat Data Shop.