Childlessness, sex composition of children, and divorce risks in China

Ma, Li; Rizzi, Ester Lucia; Turunen, Jani

doi:10.4054/demres.2019.41.26

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Despite the fact that in Western countries, children's gender matters little to their parents’ well-being (Margolis and Myrskyla, 2016; Negraia et al, 2021), it is likely to bear significant implications for Chinese parents’ happiness for both cultural and economic reasons. In traditional Chinese culture, sons are preferred to daughters.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Confucian values regarding the family, childbearing is highly encouraged and even required, and is regarded as a part and parcel of a good life. It is also viewed as one's family responsibility to fulfill because it is a primary way to carry on the family line (Ma et al, 2019;Zhang and Liu, 2007). Childlessness is thus a sign of failing in one's filial piety to one's parents and ancestors, thus having no children can be the cause of great social pressure.…”

Section: Marriage Parenthood and Happinessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Family life and Chinese adults’ happiness across the life span

Liu

2021

Chinese Journal of Sociology

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An individual's happiness is closely related to their family life as the family is the institution in which they spend most of their life. Capitalizing on data from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies, this study investigates the relationship between family economic standing (measured by household income and homeownership) and family processes (measured by marital status and childlessness), as well as children's characteristics (measured by gender composition of children and adult children's educational attainment and marital status), and happiness of Chinese adults. We take a life-course perspective and examine how such relationships vary across different life stages. We find that factors like household income and homeownership are positively related to happiness for people in general; that married adults are happier than those who are unmarried; childlessness results in decreased individual happiness in old age; adult children's educational attainment, measured by college degree (three-year and four-year) and above, improves parents’ happiness; while children's unmarried status makes parents less happy. These significant relationships also change across the life span.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Marriage Parenthood and Happinessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Family life and Chinese adults’ happiness across the life span

Liu

2021

Chinese Journal of Sociology

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“…The distress inflicted on women through marriage, family, and career expectations made Chinese women more likely than men to be diagnosed with schizophrenia and to commit suicide, contrary to the rates observed in Western countries (Pearson 1995). The divorce risk was 43% higher for one-girl couples than one-boy couples in rural China during the 2000s, a disparity not found among urban couples who were under less extreme pressure to bear a son (Ma et al 2019).…”

Section: A Gendered Journeymentioning

confidence: 87%

The Social and Sociological Consequences of China's One-Child Policy

Cai

Wang

2021

Annu. Rev. Sociol.

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China's one-child policy is one of the largest and most controversial social engineering projects in human history. With the extreme restrictions it imposed on reproduction, the policy has altered China's demographic and social fabric in numerous fundamental ways in its nearly four decades (1979–2015) of existence. Its ramifications reach far beyond China's national borders and the present generation. This review examines the policy's social consequences through its two most commonly invoked demographic concerns: elevated sex ratio and rapid population aging. We place these demographic concerns within three broad social and political contexts of the policy—gender, family, and the state—to examine its social consequences. We also discuss the sociological consequences of the policy, by reflecting on the roles of science and social scientists in public policy making. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 47 is July 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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“…For example, the above duration-specific divorce rate (i.e., 5 percent within 10 years of marriage for those born in the 1970s) in China is lower than in the United States and other East Asian countries (Kennedy & Ruggles, 2014;Raymo et al, 2013). One of the major reasons that marriage remains relatively stable in China has to do with attitudes toward raising children (Ma et al, 2019). In Figs.…”

Section: Divorcementioning

confidence: 95%

Is there a Chinese pattern of the second demographic transition?

Xie

2022

China popul. dev. stud.

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The Second Demographic Transition (SDT) is a useful theoretical framework for explaining the recent trend in many countries of very low fertility combined with alternative union and family types. Although past studies have observed the SDT in many Western societies, whether it is applicable to East Asia remains unclear. Capitalizing on data from the Chinese Census and China Family Panel Studies, we provide estimates of key behavioral and ideational indicators of the SDT. We find that union formation in China has trended increasingly toward patterns commonly observed in the West, including delayed age of marriage and the common practice of premarital cohabitation. While having a lowest-low fertility rate, China has not experienced rising nonmarital childbirths, a key component of the SDT. However, we observe growing tolerance toward nonmarital childbearing and childlessness. Marriages remain relatively stable in China, especially among couples with children. Taken together, our analysis suggests that typically coincident changes in patterns of family behavior associated with the SDT are not occurring simultaneously in China. Moreover, ideational changes are preceding behavioral changes, particularly in attitudes toward nonmarital childbearing and childlessness. Our research suggests a different pattern of the SDT in China, which has been heavily influenced by Confucian culture.

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Childlessness, sex composition of children, and divorce risks in China

Cited by 8 publications

References 46 publications

Family life and Chinese adults’ happiness across the life span

Family life and Chinese adults’ happiness across the life span

The Social and Sociological Consequences of China's One-Child Policy

Is there a Chinese pattern of the second demographic transition?

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