Poverty due to the high marriage expenses in rural China has drawn considerable attention. In this paper, based on the data of the “Hundreds of Villages Survey in China” conducted in 2018, we analyze the characteristics, trends, and typological features of rural men’s marriage expenses, and identify the determinants of rural men’s marriage expenses types under the guidance of marriage exchange theory. With the help of latent profile analysis, multinomial logit analysis, and OLS analysis, this study firstly identifies four types of marriage expenses for Chinese rural men including the “bride price & marital house”, the “mixed”, the “bride price biased”, and the “marital house biased”, and secondly finds significant associations of educational level matching, occupational level matching, and type of urbanization with different types of rural men’s marriage expenses. If a rural man has a higher education than his wife, his marriage costs are less likely to be “bride price biased”, and when his occupational level is higher, his marriage cost is more likely to be “marital house biased”, which means greater financial pressure on him. Our research verifies the theory of marriage exchange into the quantitative analysis of marriage expenses for the first time, which effectively explains the reasons for the rising cost of marriage and provides an empirical basis for effectively managing this social problem.
ObjectiveThe goal of the paper is to discover the dynamic features of rural men's age at first marriage, and to explore impacts of marriage expenses on men's age at first marriage in rural China amid a rapid urbanization and sociodemographic transition.BackgroundGiven the rapid urbanization and sociodemographic transition, changes in rural men's marriage timing and its influencing mechanism in China are emerging but remain under examined.MethodThe data were collected by the New Urbanization and Sustainable Development research group from Xi'an Jiaotong University in 2018 (n = 1,391). Regression models were used to explore the influence of men's marriage expenses and regional economic factors on their age at first marriage.ResultsThe relationship between squared total marriage expenses of rural migrant men and their age at first marriage shows as a U‐shaped curve. Conjugal matching, family, premarital migration, and regional economy play important roles for rural men entering their first marriages.ConclusionCompared with the age‐appropriate married men, the early and late married men tend to have higher marriage expenses. Men with more economic resources are capable of seizing high‐qualified women at a younger age, whereas men with less economic resources need to pay more for their first marriage at an older age. Fathers' lower social class and regional economy significantly delay men's age at first marriage.ImplicationsThis study reveals marriage expense is another important factor influencing men's first marriage entry in rural China and provides a clue to solve difficulties of rural men getting married, especially in societies with ongoing rapid urbanization and sociodemographic transition.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.