A classe média no Brasil: condições do consumo e a influência no número de filhos por domicílio

Abstract

Discussions about the so-called middle class have had wide attention in Brazil in recent years, recognizing their economic and population importance, it is observed how the new patterns of consumption adopted by this class, labor and per capita income, influence the lower number of children by Woman by several factors. The present study analyzes the relation of the number of children in the households according to their social classes and their respective patterns of consumption. For the methodological source of the discussion about the relations of social classes, the research was based on Goldthorpe's (1987) scheme of operation, in order to observe the relational effect of the number of children on their expenditures. Family Budgets (POF) of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE, referring to the 2008-2009 version. Three elements were considered central and fundamental to the database for the observation (Income, Households and Expenses), and information about social classes, number of children per household was extracted, and expenses with vehicles per household as an element of consumption. The decline in the number of children is basically explained by the great changes in the socioeconomic structure of the population. Factors such as urbanization, economic dynamism, greater access to credit and forms of consumption, and income transfer programs for the poorest population are clear for behavioral interference on child rearing by household. The influence of the consumption and the increase of the professional qualifications and of the incomes, made that there was a growth in the composition of the average social classes of the form that the reproductive behavior of the families suffered with such influences.