25 Marriage, Childbearing and Single Motherhood: Trends in Attitudes and Behaviour in Czechia and Slovakia from 1991 to 2017 1 Beatrice-Elena Chromková Manea, Ladislav Rabušic ABSTRACT Given the intensive political and economic transformation process, followed by demographic changes that has characterized the Czech Republic and Slovakia since 1989, we examine the variation in personal values and attitudes towards marriage, childbearing and single motherhood in these two countries. The main goal is to examine if the trends in values concerning marriage, childbearing and single motherhood observed between 1991 and 2017 were accompanied by similar demographic changes. Data from four waves of the European Value Study (EVS) are used, together with official vital demographic statistics. Our analysis shows that the correspondence between attitudinal survey-micro-data and aggregated (statistical) macro data is quite considerable and that there is a link/association between attitudes and behaviours. KEY WORDS European Values Study, attitudes, childbearing, fertility, marriage, out-of-wedlock births Introduction One of the most visible features in Czech and Slovak societies after the radical political changes “from socialism to capitalism” in 1989 (labelled as the Velvet Revolution) have been “new” trends in demographic behaviour characterized by a decrease in the number of marriages, an increase in the age at first marriage, the postponement of childbearing, a decrease in the number of children people have, and/or an increase in the share of people living in consensual unions (instead of marriage). These trends, which have been observed already for more than half a century (since the 1960s) in Western countries, have been summed up under the term Second Demographic Transition – SDT (van de Kaa 1997, 2001; Lesthaeghe 1983, 1995). The key element of this phenomenon – in the view of many scholars – is a substantial value change (see e.g. McDonald 2006; Inglehart and Welzel 2005; Cleland 1985; van de Kaa 1997, 2001; Lesthaeghe 1983, 1995; Inglehart 1997; Sociální studia / Social Studies 2/2019. S. 25–50. ISSN 1214-813X. 1 Funding for this research was provided by the Czech Science Foundation – project number GA17- 02022S “Hodnotové změny v České republice z evropské a světové perspektivy (Evropský výzkum hodnot/Světový výzkum hodnot 1991-2017).” We acknowledge suggestions by anonymous reviewers. The fnal version of the paper is ours, though, and the reviewers bear no responsibility for any errors and mistakes.