Socialisation in a single-parent family has been associated with negative consequences both in previous research and popular discourse. This article investigates whether this association may be different in a society with a high rate of divorce and extramarital fertility. Using data from the Czech contribution to the EU-SILC survey, it tests hypotheses concerning the difference between the current situation of adults who grew up in single-parent families and those who were raised in intact families. We look for the influence of socialisation on single-parent families in three areas—educational attainment, current partnership situation, and current family income. The results of regression analyses show that the differences between children from single-parent families and those from intact ones are very small in the area of education (the influence is apparent only at the secondary school graduation level, no difference is present at the tertiary education level), relatively weak in the area of partnership situation, and imperceptible from the viewpoint of family income. These results exclude a causal explanation for the influence of single-parent families on outcomes, cast doubt on selective principles, and open space for interpretation in terms of mechanisms of family de-institutionalisation.
Semi-dry grasslands in the White Carpathian (Bílé Karpaty) Mountains on the Czech-Slovak border are famous for their extremely high species richness. In places they contain more than 130 species of vascular plants per 100m2 and for some plot sizes they hold world records in the number of vascular plant species, but the reasons for this are poorly understood. Here we ask whether the high number of species in these grasslands can be explained by local ecological factors. We compared the White Carpathian grasslands with similar grasslands in adjacent areas in the west (southern Moravia) and the east (Inner Western Carpathians), which are on average notably poorer in species than those in the White Carpathians. In both of these areas, we sampled grasslands that were among the species richest in the regional context and had a similar physiognomy, species composition and ecology as those in the White Carpathians. We found 75 sites with >70 and >25 species of vascular plants per 100 m2 and 1 m2, respectively, in which we recorded species composition and local environmental conditions, including precipitation, soil depth, soil pH and nutrient concentrations, above-ground biomass production and nutrients in plant biomass. Although the White Carpathian grasslands were considerably richer in species than the richest grasslands in the adjacent regions, there were no differences in the values of the factors studied that could provide an unequivocal explanation of their high species richness. However, the values of the factors studied were within the ranges reported in the literature as conducive to high species richness in temperate grasslands. We conclude that the high species richness recorded in the White Carpathian grasslands cannot be explained by a single factor. It results from a unique combination of regional factors (long history of these grasslands, large size of individual grassland areas and their existence in a landscape mosaic with forests, scrub and small wetlands), local abiotic factors (soil pH, soil nutrient status, moisture regime and resulting grassland productivity that are suitable for many species from the regional species pool) and management (low fertilizer input and mowing once a year in late spring or summer).
White-tailed deer were introduced into the Czech Republic about one hundred years ago. Population numbers have remained stable at low density despite almost no harvesting. This differs from other introductions of this species in Europe. We presumed that one of the possible factors preventing expansion of the white-tailed deer population is lack of high-quality food components in an area overpopulated by sympatric roe, fallow and red deer. We analyzed the WTD winter diet and diets of the other deer species to get information on their feeding strategy during a critical period of a year. We focused primarily on conifer needle consumption, a generally accepted indicator of starvation and on bramble leaves as an indicator of high-quality items. We tested the following hypotheses: (1) If the environment has a limited food supply, the poorest competitors of the four deer species will have the highest proportion of conifer needles in the diet ; (2) the deer will overlap in trophic niches and will share limited nutritious resource (bramble). White-tailed, roe, fallow, and red deer diets were investigated by microscopic analysis of plant remains in their faeces. The volume of bramble decreased in the diet of all four deer species from November to March. The content of conifer needles in the diet of white-tailed and roe deer was negatively correlated with bramble and in spring made up 90 % of their diet volume. On the other hand conifer needles in the diet of red and fallow deer occurred only in January with snow cover. Fallow and red deer started the compensation of winter starvation at least one monthearlier than both roe and white-tailed deer. a high content of conifers in white-tailed deer diet in the second half of the winter fully support the presumption about low nutritional food supply and its diet. It can lead to a markedly impaired condition for white-tailed and roe deer and negatively affect their condition. The dietary overlap of four sympatric deer species was extensive in winter. All species share a limited good quality food supply (bramble) when food is scarce, suggesting that interspecific competition may occur.
The article is conceived as a contribution to a critical reading of opinion data and the presentation of ISSP modules on Work Orientations from 1997 and 2005 in the Czech Republic. In the first part, some methodological problems regarding the inspection of work and job values are presented using examples drawn from previous research. In the second part, the framework of systemic transition is set up and hypotheses are presented regarding work values and attitudes from the perspective of gender and age, education and occupation. In the third part, a comparison is made of people's expectations regarding their work and jobs with their perceived fulfilment. In the fourth part, we consider the perceived location of workers between the distant worlds of family and firms and inspect factors of work and job satisfaction. In conclusion, we discuss the role of subjective perceptions in the economy and the question of a 'true' change in values during the transition.
Childcare leave schemes are one of the key measures that affect the ability of women and men to balance their work and family lives. Both the length of the parental leave period and the amount of the benefit have the potential to shape the timing of a subsequent birth. Important changes have been introduced into the Czech parental benefit scheme over the last 10 years in terms of both the scheme’s flexibility and the monthly amount of the benefit, which has provided a unique opportunity for studying the links between the institutional conditions of parenthood and the behaviour of real stakeholders. Using data on births from the Czech Statistical Office and the parity-cohort analytical approach, we investigate changes in the spacing of second and third births among women who had their first or second child between 1986 and 2013. The results revealed an increase in the second- and third-birth rate during the second and third year following a delivery, together with a decrease in the second- and third-birth rate during the fourth year and later among mothers exposed to changes in the parental benefit scheme. These changes in reproductive behaviour noticeably coincided with the incentives that have been provided since 2008 by the increased flexibility of the parental leave scheme and the author argues that the option to increase the monthly amount of the parental benefit together with the flexibility of its use has contributed to the closer spacing of births, most notably among more educated women.