Tradition and Change in Vietnamese Family Structure in the Red River Delta

Abstract

ࡗ Tradition and Change in Vietnamese Family Structure in the Red River DeltaOne of the key features of Vietnamese family organization is patrilocality-the preference of married couples to coreside with the husband's parents. With data drawn from a retrospective survey of persons in 1,855 households in the largest province in the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam, we found that more than 75% of married respondents reported having lived with the grooms' family after marriage. The proportion of newly married couples that follow the patrilocal custom appears to have increased in recent decades, although the average duration of coresidence has declined. Some aspects of modernization, especially nonagricultural occupations and later age at marriage, contribute to a lower incidence of intergenerational coresidence, but the underlying cultural preference to live with the grooms' parents immediately after marriage appears to have become stronger in Vietnam. In contrast to some features of traditional family life that conflict with modernity, intergenerational coresidence can be quite functional in modernizing societies.

Gender, Social Change, and Living Arrangements Among Older Egyptians During the 1990s

“…Scholars have attributed high, stable levels of intergenerational coresidence to the resilience of cultural norms (Hirschman and Huu Minh 2002;Kamo and Zhou 1994;Lee et al 1994), the adaptation of families to new social and economic circumstances of daily life (Logan and Bian 1999;Morgan and Hirosima 1983;Thornton and Fricke 1987), and legal and institutional barriers to independent living (Logan and Bian 1999;Logan et al 1998). The latter circumstances in particular may enhance a need for coresidence not only among older adults, but also among their adult children.…”

Intergenerational Coresidence in Developing Countries

“…With rising female labor-force participation in many countries, the demand for services that can be provided by elders-such as grandchild care and housework-may be on the rise in some areas (e.g., Morgan and Hirosima 1983;Chamratrithirong, Morgan, and Rindfuss 1988;Hirschman and Minh 2002;Sasaki 2002; for contrasting evidence, see Logan, Bian, and Bian 1998). Some developing countries have seen unstable or declining employment prospects for young people despite significant economic growth, and some have introduced pension programs for the aged; both of these factors may encourage the younger generation to remain in their parental homes after reaching adulthood (Keller 2004;Camarano 2002;De Vos and Andrade 2005;Duryea, Jaramillo, and Pages 2003) More broadly, it is possible that rising incomes-especially among the older generationhave allowed more people to achieve their preferred family structure.…”

Attitudes toward marriage in northern Vietnam: what qualitative data reveal about variations across gender, generation, and geography

“…Nonetheless, while a woman's relationship with her own parents may be reduced, it is not severed after marriage (Gammeltoft 1999) and there may be ongoing support in both directions, particularly when the couple does not live far from the bride's family. While post-marriage residence patterns have been considered somewhat more flexible in Vietnam than in more strict Confucian contexts, it is interesting that rather than diminishing (in step with other modernizing processes), the norm of patrilocality appears actually to have increased among recent marriage cohorts (Hirschman and Minh 2002).…”