Family status and women's career mobility during urban China's economic transition

The Impact of Education on Fertility During the Chinese Reform Era (1980-2018): Changes Across Birth Cohorts and Interaction with Fertility Policies

We examined the influence of education on fertility decisions in contemporary China, drawing upon theoretical insights that emphasise the role of social institutions, gender relations, and life course dynamics in shaping family behaviour. This led us to propose a set of hypotheses that explain the differential effect of education on each parity. We used information on female cohorts born between 1960 and 1989, coming from the China Family Panel Studies for 2010-2018. We applied event history models with both independent and simultaneous equations models to account for selection and endogeneity effects. The results point to a substantial contribution of the increased educational attainment in the population in the fertility decline and current low levels of fertility, beyond the role of fertility policies. Consistent with our hypotheses, the results show that woman's educational attainment has a strong negative effect on the hazard of bearing a second or third child. Male partner's educational attainment also has a negative effect on the hazard of transition to a second or third birth, yet with a weaker intensity. We also found that the negative effect of education on second birth rates significantly declines across birth cohorts. The results show little educational differentials in the probability of bearing a first child, while the better educated postpone first births. Moreover, the effect of fertility policies, measured at the individual level, gradually increases with the level of education.

Relative deprivation patterns in social and geographical references for health trajectories in China: Investigations of gender and urban-rural disparities

OBJECTIVE

A pervasive link between relative deprivation and health has been well-documented. However, prior studies suffered from inadequate relative deprivation measures that fail to define appropriate reference groups to which individuals compare themselves, and few provided longitudinal evidence. This study explores latent relative deprivation patterns based on multiple social and geographic reference groups, examining their impacts on health trajectories and variations by gender and urban-rural areas.

METHODS

Using three waves (2013, 2015, & 2018) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (n = 6035), we conducted latent class analysis (LCA) to identify the baseline latent relative deprivation patterns among five social and geographic reference groups (relatives, schoolmates, colleagues, neighbors, and other people in the city or county). The LCA results were linked to the latent growth curve parallel process modeling (PPM) to investigate the impacts of deprivation patterns on dual health trajectories (depressive symptoms and self-rated health), and the results were stratified to explore gender and urban-rural differences.

RESULTS

The LCA revealed a relatively deprived group (36.39%) and a non-deprived group (63.61%). The PPM results indicated that the relatively deprived group showed a higher initial level of depressive symptoms and a lower initial level of self-rated health than the non-deprived group. However, the relatively deprived group showed a slower growth rate in depressive symptoms than the non-deprived group. These findings were particularly evident among women and rural residents.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings emphasize the negative impact of relative deprivation on health. Furthermore, there is a complex interplay in these effects intertwined with gender and locality. Policies aimed at promoting mental health should not only consider relatively deprived groups, but also non-deprived women and rural residents who are at higher risk for later-life depression.

Introduction to the special collection on family changes and inequality in East Asia

BACKGROUND

East Asian societies have experienced rapid social changes, among which the extraordinary expansion of higher education for both women and men, rising economic inequality, and increasing labor market uncertainty should be particularly relevant to family changes. At the same time, gender inequality and traditional gender norms still prevail and shape family life in the region. The eight articles in this special collection share the common interest of how families in East Asia have evolved against a backdrop of growing economic inequality and persistent gender inequality - among other key forces affecting family life - across a variety of family-related outcomes: from singlehood, marriage intentions, and dating, through fertility, the time use of adolescents and parents with young children, and women's careers, to intergenerational coresidence and the life satisfaction of older parents.

RESULTS

Our eight studies look at connected but distinctive outcomes related to family life, and collectively demonstrate the relevance of increased labor market uncertainty and the continuing male breadwinner norm to emerging patterns of family behavior in East Asia. They illustrate specific ways in which East Asian families are shaped by the joint forces of economic inequality and gender inequality.

CONTRIBUTION

This volume highlights the complexity and heterogeneity of contemporary East Asian families, inviting family and demography researchers to conduct more studies on under-researched family behaviors such as cohabitation and nonmarital births and to revisit the conventional perception that family ties are strong and family support is readily available in East Asia.