Relations, Attitudes

In December 2003 Public Opinion Research Centre also included in its survey two open questions, where respondents named what they disliked most about human character and behaviour of people. The results of the survey show that as to the human character respondents dislike pretentiousness, lying and jealousy most, and with respect to the behaviour of people the first spots were occupied by pretentiousness, lying and aggressiveness.

The survey results confirmed that the upbringing of children was concentrated in the hands of women. About four fifths of respondents with children say for example that mother takes the child to the doctor’s or used to go to the doctor’s in case of the grown up child, as well as stays or used to stay with the child at home during illness. Mainly mothers read stories to their children and learn with them.

The research showed that the attitude of the Czech public towards employing foreigners is not clear cut in this country: 45 % of respondents think it is correct, a similar number - 44 % have an opposite opinion. Most respondents believe that a cheap foreign labour force represents a threat to employing Czech citizens (82 %) and that the employing of foreigners in areas with high unemployment should be cut down (81 %).

Almost three quarters of respondents agree on the fact that foreigners should have the possibility of gaining long-term residence in the Czech Republic, but only under certain conditions. The opinion that foreigners should not be given the possibility to stay here on a long-term basis was expressed by 17 % of respondents and on the other hand residence without restrictions would be enabled by 6 % of respondents.

The absolute majority of citizens feel proud of the Czech Republic in connection with sport (91 %), culture (89 %), history (88 %) and a little less with science and technology (77 %). Other reasons as a source for feeling national esteem are seen only by a minority of the population: in case of armed forces it is 41 %, functioning of democracy or relation to foreigners 38 %, in case of political influence in the world 32 %, in relation to social welfare 25 % and in case of economic results it is a mere 11 %.

For many activities connected with caring for children the most frequent situation is that both parents jointly share these or take turns depending on who has time at that point, and generally it applies that the proportion of both parents’ taking a share in individual activities connected with caring for children is higher in families of the current generation than it used to be in families of the previous generation.

According to the answers provided, Czechs most often look after the household together, as stated by three fifths of men and almost a half of women. Only a small proportion of men said that most care for the household was placed on them. A quarter of men admitted that their partners do the most in looking after the household, however a third of women believe that they themselves do the most in looking after the household.

35.4 % of respondent according to their own words experienced discrimination at work. The most frequent reasons for the feeling of being disadvantaged were age (47.2 percentage points out of one hundred), education (38.6 percentage points out of one hundred) and sex (34.5 percentage points out of one hundred). Health condition was quoted as the reason for discrimination by less than 21 respondents out of a hundred and nationality or race by 2 respondents out of a hundred.

The respondents consider their family environment to be the most important part of their lives: the family was rated as very important by 83 %, the children by 72 % and the partner by 71 % of citizens. Parents are very important for about two thirds of respondents (68 %). For most of the people, work represents a high value - for 54 % of people it is very important, for 31 % quite important. Similarly but a little less, respondents value friends - for 51 % of respondents friends play an important role, for 40 % quite an important role in their lives.

Premarital sexual activities are judged by the Czech public in a very tolerant way, almost 50 % of respondents think that such relations are usually good and another 33 % consider them as always being good. A total of 11 % of respondents were against “sex before marriage” (regarded as mostly or always bad).

On the other hand, the attitude towards adultery in marriage is not as tolerant, 34 % see it as always bad and 48 % of respondents as mostly bad.