Browsing by Author "Terna, Henna"

The aim of the study was to examine family perceptions and everyday life well-being of the voluntarily childless individuals. Everyday life is a well-studied topic in home economics, but the perspectives of the studies are usually within the families. The intention of this reserch was to look at daily activities and factors associated with the well-being of the voluntarily childless. Additionally, the study explores this populations' perceptions and experiences regarding their definition of a family. This thesis represents a branch of the individualist family studies that emphasizes one’s freedoms. Family perceptions of the voluntarily childless has been studied to some extent, but their everyday life have been left with a little research. The study was carried out through personal interviews with seven individuals who voluntarily do not have children. Addionally I supplemented my literature with interview of a specialist. The research was data-driven. I performed the data analysis by using data-driven content analysis. Based on the analysis, two questions were selected as the framework for the study. This research delves into answering these two research questions: "What are the perceptions voluntarily childless individuals have about families?" and “What factors make up the everyday life of these people?” The research results showed that the family perceptions of voluntarily childless rely heavily on individual family perceptions. The everyday well-being of the interviewees consisted of perceived well-being and health, mental well-being, social relationships, meaningful doing, material living conditions, quality of living environment and freedom. Freedom proved to be the most important single measure of well-being. Individual’s longing for freedom proved to be an important factor underlying the phenomenon of voluntary childlessness. In addition to work and homework, the interviewees' everyday life consisted of self-development, social interactions, being at home or doing other things that were meaningful to themselves.