China Family Research Articles

Gendered social practices in reproductive health: A qualitative study exploring lived experiences of unwed single mothers in China.

China's family planning policy has historically silenced the voices of women, especially unwed single mothers at the expense of their reproductive health and overall wellbeing. Further, reproductive decisions in China are closely intertwined with marriage decisions and intergenerational dynamics, highlighting the relevance of gender in women's reproductive health experiences. Chinese unwed single mothers are in particular penalized for violating the gendered social norms supported by the national reproductive policies. Drawing on previous work that calls on the need to explore gender system and its influence on health, this manuscript explores the ways in which gender norms are played out for the unwed single mothers within romantic and intergenerational relations, with impacts on their reproductive health and decision-making. The findings show that reproductive decisions are interwoven with the fulfilment of other gendered identities, such as daughter, daughter-in-law and wife. Although the decision to go through unwed motherhood is reflective of their agency, the tie between childbirth and marriage does not allow the women to entirely break free from the social system. The findings also highlight the importance of considering the role of gender system that is played out within social relations, which in turn impacts the health of the women.

How Did China's 'Later Marriage'' Policy Affect the Timing of First Marriage and Later-Life Outcomes?

We study the consequences of later marriage on later-life outcomes. China's family planning policies in the early 1970s---before the One-Child Policy (OCP)---regulated not only childbirth but also marriage. The recommended minimum marriage age of 25 years for men and 23 years for women was effectively relaxed when the government formally introduced the OCP and put greater emphasis on directly controlling fertility rather than marriage. As a result, the marriage age, which had been increasing steadily since 1970, suddenly started to decline in the early 1980s. This policy shift provides us with an opportunity to apply a regression probability jump and kink (RPJK) design for the identification purpose. Using data from the 2000 census, we find that later-married men have fewer children and that later-married women are more likely to participate in the labor market. We find no consistent evidence that later marriage improves education, probably because most Chinese people marry after completing their education.

Premarital Pregnancy in China: Cohort Trends and Educational Gradients.

In China, premarital sexual and reproductive behavior is seldom considered and poorly understood. Increases in premarital pregnancy are thought to not only illuminate a decoupling of marriage and sexual/reproductive behavior but also serve as a key feature of family change in East Asia. This study assesses change across cohorts in the likelihood of premarital pregnancy and the extent to which change differs by educational attainment. Drawing on the 2017 China Fertility Survey, we apply a discrete-time, competing-risk survival analysis to a nationally representative sample of 221,990 women born between 1960 and 1999. Women born in the 1980s and 1990s are more likely than those born in the 1960s and 1970s to experience a pregnancy prior to first marriage. This cohort trend is driven by increases in premarital pregnancy among women with a high school education or less. The less educated women and their college counterparts increasingly diverge in the likelihood of experiencing a premarital pregnancy. The diverging patterns of premarital pregnancy underscore the urgency to shift the focus of China's family planning programs from fertility control to reproductive health, with an emphasis on providing information and services to disadvantaged unmarried individuals.

The power of the government: China's Family Planning Leading Group and the fertility decline of the 1970s

China introduced its world-famous One-Child Policy in 1979. However, its fertility appears to have declined even faster in the early 1970s than it did after 1979. The fertility rate declined by three children, from 5.7 in 1969 to 2.7 in 1978.

Spillovers in Childbearing Decisions and Fertility Transitions: Evidence from China

This article uses China's family planning policies to quantify and explain spillovers in fertility decisions. We test whether ethnic minorities decreased their fertility in response to the policies, although only the majority ethnic group, the Han Chinese, were subject to birth quotas. We exploit the policy rollout and variation in pre-policy age-specific fertility levels to construct a measure of the negative shock to Han fertility. Combining this measure with variation in the local share of Han, we estimate that a woman gives birth to 0.65 fewer children if the average completed fertility among her peers is exogenously reduced by one child. The fertility response of minorities is driven by cultural proximity with the Han and by higher educational investments, suggesting that spillovers operate through both social and economic channels. These results provide evidence that social multipliers can accelerate fertility transitions.

Research on the Dynamic Mechanism of National Pharmaceutical Industry Chain

This paper relies on the “China Health and Family Planning Statistical Yearbook” published by the National Bureau of Statistics. Analyzing the current development status of ethnic medicine, the driving force of the national medicine industry chain is the national medicine industry, especially the development of grassroots national medical institutions, and the core problem of solving the grassroots development is the construction of national physicians and the accelerated cultivation of national medical talents. Providing sufficient human resources to grassroots medical institutions is an important guarantee for the development of national medicine industry. Finally, on the basis of research, the development model of the national industrial chain of ethnic medicine was established.

Family size, birth order and educational attainment: Evidence from China

Using Chinese Household Income Project survey data from 2013, this paper investigates the effects of family size and birth order on children's educational attainment. The endogeneity of family size is an important identification issue in the test of the quantity-quality tradeoff. We use variations in a mother's exposure to various phases of China's family planning policies by Hukou type, ethnicity and regional differences in fine rates as instruments to identify the causal effects of family size. We find that family size has a negative effect on children's education. Using family fixed effects model, we find a positive birth order effect. In addition, both the family size and birth order effects are more pronounced for families where first-born children are females than those where the first-borns are males. Birth order effect is more evident in financially constrained families.

From the Four Generations Cohabitation Family to the Dink Family: The Evolution of Chinese Young People's Family Concept

China's family planning policy has achieved remarkable results in controlling the excessive growth of population, but it has also caused a series of problems, such as labor shortage, consumption depression and so on, especially the impact on the traditional family values of young people. Young people do not want to have more children, or even one child, which will have a huge impact on the development of Chinese society. This paper probes into the reasons of the evolution of family values of young people in China from the aspects of living burden and social security system etc. The paper pointed out that the evolution of family values of young people in China will have a great impact on social development. Every family has two children, which is beneficial to social development. In order to solve young people's worries about having more children, a good social security system should be established.

Fact in Fiction: 1920s China and Ba Jin's Family. By Kristin Stapleton. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016. ix + 280 pp. $25.95 (paper).

Fact in Fiction: 1920s China and Ba Jin's Family. By Kristin Stapleton. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016. ix + 280 pp. $25.95 (paper).

Why did National Leaders in India, China, and Peru Impose Coercive Family Planning Policies?

Why did National Leaders in India, China, and Peru Impose Coercive Family Planning Policies?

Wall Slogans: the Communication of China's Family Planning Policy in Rural Areas

Abstract:The one-child era, which lasted thirty-five years (1980–2015), was a unique period in Chinese (and even world) history. With the introduction of the universal two-child policy in 2016, China put an end to the age of the one-child policy. Since the policy change has come into effect, China's rural areas, which contain approximately 800 million people, have experienced a very particular historical phenomenon. Due to the changes in China's family planning policy, slogans painted on walls have evolved in terms of the messages they carry to grassroots rural areas. Once conveying China's family planning policy propaganda with, at times, a shocking and controversial tone, the wall slogans in rural areas have evolved with the wider changes to the country's family planning policy. However, this dying, unique way of communication between the government and rural areas is being consigned to the memory of the times of rural policy advocacy in China.

Kristin Stapleton , Fact in Fiction: 1920s China and Ba Jin's Family. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2016. ix + 296pp. 20 images. 2 tables. 2 maps. $85.00/£73.00 hbk. $25.95/£21.99 pbk.

Kristin Stapleton , Fact in Fiction: 1920s China and Ba Jin's Family. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2016. ix + 296pp. 20 images. 2 tables. 2 maps. $85.00/£73.00 hbk. $25.95/£21.99 pbk.

The impact of changes in China's family patterns on family pension functions.

Using data from the Chinese census and the China Statistical Yearbook, this paper will analyze the historical changes and future trends of family households in China over the past 30years and explore the changes of family pension functions and corresponding policies. Our analysis yielded 3 notable results. First, in family size miniaturization and structural simplification, 1- and 2-generation family households are the main body of contemporary China. Second, for family aging and changes in living patterns, which primarily manifest as an increase in; the proportion of elderly households and in middle-aged and elderly people in the family, the elderly model and the "multigenerational model" have become the 2 major residence models for the elderly in China. Third, nontraditional families have emerged in large numbers, such as the exclusively elderly family, empty nest family, grandparents family, Double Income, No Kids (DINK) family, older single family, and single-parent family. We argue that in the process of simplification, China's family structure is increasingly showing characteristics of networking. The change in family patterns entails the restoration of traditional functions and taking on new functions of the family by issuing relevant social policies. Only when these social policies are based on family functions and demands can they provide effective help to social members, particularly regarding the family's responsibilities to parent children and support the elderly.

The Model Choice and Development Strategy of Chinese Family Trust

With the continuous development of China's economy, the demand for family trust is increasing year by year. At present, China's family wealth management model is not perfect, there are still some problems in some areas. Therefore, in order to develop rapidly, the family trust enterprises need to explore their own advantages, to establish family wealth management model with Chinese characteristics.

Resistant to change? The transition to parenthood among married adults in China

Using retrospective life history data from the 2008 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) and discrete time event history analysis, this study investigates the transition to parenthood of adult males and females for the 1965 to 2004 marriage cohorts. We find that Chinese people generally prefer to become parents soon after marriage. We also find that more recent marriage cohorts are less likely to become parents compared to earlier cohort for males, but this is not the case for women. This indicates that economic or role incompatibility in general does not prevent women from becoming mothers, which in general supports the idea that there are alternative resources available for women to balance the role incompatibility in China's context. The extended family is an important resource for married couples to rely upon to raise young children. This study sheds light on China's family therapy practice, which should take into consideration the demographic trends and cultural factors in understanding the role conflict within the family, such as intergenerational relations and gender ideology.Practitioner points Role incompatibility of having children can be relieved by extended family, so therapy programmes dealing with intergenerational relationship should be developed Family therapists should consider the pace of gender ideology change in child rearing during negotiation of the husband‐wife relationship Training programmes can be more specific to the extended family for dealing with child rearing skills and potential conflict resolutions.

Does the one-child policy improve children's human capital in urban China? A regression discontinuity design

This paper is the first to examine the causal relationship between China's One-Child Policy (OCP) and the long-term accumulation of human capital by a regression discontinuity design. Based on the 2005 China Inter-census Survey data, we observe a strong policy shock upon the probability of being a single child among people born around the starting point of OCP, which in turn significantly increases their educational attainment in adulthood. The results strongly suggest that there exists a quantity-quality trade-off as renewed by Becker, and the trade-off is more pronounced in the economically less developed regions and among families with the same-sex children. The results shed light on the re-understanding of China's family planning initiative as well as the application of regression discontinuity designs.

중국 단독 두 자녀 정책의 출범 배경과그에 따른 법률문제에 관한 연구

In 2013, selective two-child policy was finally concerned in China. The selective two-child policy in China fundamentally changed the orientation and trend of the one-child and “one child”family planning policy, it is the turning point of China's Family Planning Policy. One-child policy has been i...

China's Family Planning Policies and Their Labor Market Consequences

China initiated its family planning policy in 1962 and one-child policy in 1980 and allows all couples to have two children as of 1st January, 2016. This paper systematically examines the labor market consequences of China's family planning policies. First, we briefly review the major historical evolution of China's family planning policies. Second, we investigate the effects of these policies on the labor market, focusing on the size and quality of the working-age population and its age and gender composition and paying special attention to regional as well as rural-urban differences in the demographic structure resulting from the interaction of the family planning policies and internal migration. Last, we discuss undergoing and prospective policy changes and potential consequences. Though urban areas and coastal provinces have implemented stricter family planning policies, our analysis shows that because of internal migration, the aging problem is more severe in rural areas and in inland provinces. Our simulation results further indicate that the new two-child policy may be too late and too little to alleviate the aging problem in China.

Unmet sexual and reproductive health needs of women aged 50 to 64 years in rural China.

China's family planning program focuses on younger women. Women older than 50 years, especially those in rural areas, are ineligible for free services and often have few other care options. Few studies have examined the sexual and reproductive health demands and unmet needs of these women. This cross-sectional, interviewer-administered survey included 1,652 rural women aged 50 to 64 years from seven provinces in China. We examined women's sexual and reproductive health status, knowledge, and service demands, and whether they still had an intrauterine device (IUD). Educational levels were low, and most were rural farmers or housewives. The mean age at menopause was 48.9 years, and 52.4% reported climacteric symptoms. The mean frequency of sex in the last month was 1.8 times. About 47.4% of women had undergone a gynecological examination during the past 2 years. The first choice for care was family planning clinics (31.2%) followed by township hospitals (28.4%). Identified service needs included women's health check-ups (56.5%), sexual health knowledge (54.4%), women's health knowledge (35.4%), menopause counseling (34.8%), and IUD removal after menopause (17.0%). Among 519 postmenopausal women who used an IUD, 19.1% had not had it removed. On multivariate regression, awareness of correct time for IUD removal, beliefs about sex after menopause, receiving formal health education, and undergoing gynecological examination were significantly associated with having had IUD removal. A large proportion of middle-aged women in rural China lack sexual and reproductive health services, including IUD removal after menopause. A comprehensive program of sexual and reproductive health services is needed for middle-aged women in rural China.

China's family planning policies: recent reforms and future prospects.

In November 2013, China announced reforms to its family planning policies whereby couples would be allowed to have a second child if either parent is an only child. The announcement garnered worldwide media coverage, and stimulated academic and popular discussion. We explore the context of the 2013 reforms, including the economic, demographic, and political motivations behind them, and speculate on their likely effect. Noting that the impact of the reforms on China's long-term demographic future is likely to be relatively slight, we consider why more radical reform may have been difficult to implement. We offer observations about possible future directions for Chinese family planning policies and explore the notion of "local pronatalism within nationally prescribed antinatalist limits" and how this suggests that an ideological shift within China's family planning apparatus may be plausible.