Family Policy Awareness and Marital Intentions: A National Survey Experimental Study

Political efficacy and fertility intentions: A survey experiment study in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore

The decline in fertility is a pressing issue for most advanced economies. Previous studies on fertility have not paid enough attention to politics. This study investigates the role of political efficacy on people's fertility intentions in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore - three advanced economies with different political regimes. We also uncover how such a relationship varies depending on people's political attitudes. This study gathered data from three online surveys with a factorial experiment design in Hong Kong (N = 1895), Taiwan (N = 1971), and Singapore (N = 1985). The results of random-intercept regression analyses show that the impact of political efficacy varies depending on the context. The results indicate that political efficacy positively impacts fertility intentions in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where there are active political movements, especially among those who support democratic values. In Singapore, where there is a lack of active political movements, political efficacy has a lesser impact on fertility intentions. In modern societies with advanced economies and influential political voices from civil society, promoting citizens' involvement in policymaking may be a beneficial strategy to increase fertility rates.

Fertility Intention to Have a Third Child in China following the Three-Child Policy: A Cross-Sectional Study

China's three-child policy was implemented in May 2021 to stimulate a rise in fertility levels. However, few previous studies have explored fertility intentions to have a third child and have only focused on childless or one-child populations, resulting in a gap in findings between fertility intention and fertility behavior. Thus, we conducted a nationwide cross-sectional study on 1308 participants with two children. Results showed that only 9.6% of participants reported planning to have a third child and 80.2% of the population had heard of the policy but had no idea of the detailed contents. Participants with two daughters (OR = 3.722, 95% CI = 2.304-6.013) were willing to have one more child. Instrumental values (OR = 1.184, 95% CI = 1.108-1.265) and policy support (OR = 1.190, 95% CI = 1.124-1.259) were the facilitators. Perceived risk (OR = 0.883, 95% CI = 0.839-0.930) and higher educational level (OR = 0.693, 95% CI = 0.533-0.900) were the leading barriers to having one more child. Therefore, the government should deepen parents' understanding of the "three-child policy" and devise ways of reducing the negative impacts of having a third child to boost the intention to have more children. Our proposed approach can also be used to better understand the reasons for low fertility rates in other countries.

The evolution of demographic methods

Demographic methods have been evolving ever since the birth of demography in response to changes in the field's research contents and theoretical orientations. An early core mission of finding regularities underlying macro-level population phenomena and a later interest in explaining population changes inductively facilitated the development of formal demographic techniques. A more radical methodological shift occurred after the 1960s, with the increasing availability of micro-level survey data and a shift of theoretical focus toward causal mechanisms, leading to the widespread adoption of regression-based models and methods from other social science disciplines. The future development of demographic methods will likely continue to incorporate new methods first developed in other disciplines, including techniques for analyzing unstructured "big" data, but formal demographic techniques will still play a role in population forecasting, measurements improvements, and correction of faulty data, providing foundational knowledge for other social science disciplines.

Burnout and Its Antecedents: Considering Both Work and Household Time Claims, and Flexibility in Relation to Burnout

This study contributes to the previous literature by examining how flexible work arrangements interact with work and family time claims to affect burnout. It does so by providing a theoretical framework and empirical test of the interaction of flexibility with the effect of work and family time claims on burnout. Hypotheses and predictions based on previous literature are tested by Ordinary Least Squared regression models using data from the Time Competition Survey, constituting a sample of 1,058 employees of 89 function groups within 30 organizations. We found no main effects of work and family time claims or flexible work arrangements on burnout. However, the results do show an interaction of flexible working hours with the effect of work and family time claims on burnout. Specifically, the higher an individual's work and family time claims, the more this person benefits from having flexible working hours. In general, the results support the proposition that the relationship between work and family time claims and burnout differs for individuals with different levels of flexible work arrangements.