Using recent, nationally representative data, we examine the prevalence and social determinants of premarital cohabitation, an important sign of the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) in China. Descriptive results show that although only about 7 percent of Chinese adults born before 1980 cohabited before first marriage, cohabitation has grown sharply among recent birth cohorts. Based on the theoretical perspectives of “ideational change” and “economic development,” we conduct multivariate analyses of social determinants of cohabitation that may reveal potential mechanisms of its diffusion. We find that greater exposure to Western culture, higher educational attainment for men, and more advantaged family background were all positively related to premarital cohabitation. Our results also show the influence of a unique social institution in China, with Communist Party members less likely than their counterparts to cohabit before first marriage. Broadly speaking, the positive association between economic development and local rates of premarital cohabitation suggests the transformative influence of modernization on family systems.

Using national survey data and measures of housing prices, we examine the effects of demographic and socioeconomic determinants of entry into marriage in urban China spanning the past six decades. Our study yields three significant findings. First, the importance of economic prospects has significantly increased during the economic reform era. Second, the positive effect of working in the state-owned sector has substantially weakened. Third, for the most recent period after the housing reform in urban China, the effects of education vary with local housing prices. Specifically, a higher level of education is associated with early entry into marriage when housing prices are relatively high but with late entry into marriage when housing prices are relatively low. Taken together, these results suggest that the determinants of marriage in China should be understood within a broader context of institutional changes.

Past research on the “motherhood wage penalty” has all been based on data from nuclear families, leaving open the possibility that the motherhood wage penalty may be lower or even absent in multi-generational families. In this paper, the wage gap between mothers and non-mothers is examined in both nuclear and multi-generational families in the context of contemporary China, which has a long tradition of patriarchal families. Using 1993–2006 China Health and Nutrition Survey data, the magnitude and variation of motherhood penalty is explored with fixed effects models among 1,058 women. It is found that each additional child lowers hourly wages by about 12 percent. In addition, the results show that the motherhood penalty is largest for women living with husband’s parents, smaller for women not living with parents, and nil for women living with their own parents.

BACKGROUND Family in China has experienced drastic changes in the past decades. Yet we have limited knowledge of the trends and patterns of the Chinese family in transition. OBJECTIVE This study provides a systematic documentation of the Chinese family in transition by estimating a variety of indicators of marital and fertility behaviors in China, including the singlehood rate, first marriage age, cohabitation rate, divorce rate, and nonmarital childbirth rate.

Work–family conflict affects employee performance and well-being. However, despite the underlying focus of work–family research on family health and well-being, we have limited knowledge about the impact of role-based stressors, such as work–family conflict, on child health. In this study, we propose and test the stressor-self-regulatory resources-crossover framework. In the spirit of extension of existing work–family research to other cultural settings, we report on two multisource studies conducted in Nigeria to explain whether, how, why, and when parental work–family conflict relates to child health. In Study 1, we collected multisource data from parent–child pairs in low-income families to test whether parental self-regulatory resources explain why work- family conflict relates to child health, resulting in findings that support the stressor-self-regulatory resources-crossover framework. In order to identify possible targets for future organizational-based interventions, we collected Study 2 data from parents and their children (who were enrolled at private schools) to test whether job autonomy and job demands altered the relationship between parental self-regulatory resources and child health. Moderator analyses of the multisource data reveal that self-regulatory resources matter for child health only when job demands are high or when job autonomy is low, pointing to potential intervention and policy levers.

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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.

Driven by economic development, ideational changes and family planning policies, the Chinese family has experienced significant change over the past several decades. Based on data from the 2018 wave of the China Family Panel Studies, this study analyzes China’s younger generations’ union formation and childbearing behaviors. The results show that although the average age of entry into a first marriage continues to rise, young people generally express a desire to enter into marriage and value the creation of a family. As premarital cohabitation became more prevalent, its determinants change from the “second demographic transition” model to the “pattern of disadvantage” model. The differences between cohabitors and non-cohabitors in premarital conception, premarital childbirth and divorce diminished in the recent cohorts. The findings suggest that the age of childbearing for Chinese women remains relatively early. The implementation of the “universal two-child policy” in 2015 has also encouraged younger women’s childbearing. Among those born in the 1980s, almost half have already given birth to a second child. The ideal number of children has declined across birth cohorts in China, especially for individuals with a higher educational level and urban hukou. In summary, changes in union formation and childbearing among Chinese youth imply that China will be facing a further rise in the first marriage age and a further decline in the fertility rate. However, voluntary singlehood will remain rare, and Chinese youth still value the importance of marriage and childbearing.