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Fertility in China: All Roads Lead to Low Fertility.

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Fertility in China: All Roads Lead to Low Fertility./
Author:	Zhang, Chenyao.
Published:	Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, : 2023,
Description:	142 p.
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-04, Section: A.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International85-04A.
Subject:	Sociology. -
Online resource:	https://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=30788297
ISBN:	9798380595292

Fertility in China: All Roads Lead to Low Fertility.
Zhang, Chenyao.

Fertility in China: All Roads Lead to Low Fertility. - Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2023 - 142 p.

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-04, Section: A.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Ohio State University, 2023.

Fertility in China has fallen to very low levels: the period TFR is 1.3 births per woman, and the mean ideal number of children has decreased to 1.8. Both actual and ideal fertility are now below the replacement level of two births per woman. Persistence of such low fertility has many consequences for Chinese society in both the short-term and long-term. These consequences can be evaluated as both positive and negative, although negative consequences now predominate in public discourse, in particular concern about the rapid aging of the Chinese populations, with its attendant economic and social repercussions. This dissertation offers a close examination of factors underlying and reinforcing low fertility in China. I make use of two separate bodies of empirical material: qualitative interviews conducted by the author that explore in depth young adults' views about the various costs and benefits of having children (Chapter 2); survey data that provides extensive measurement of financial factors that bear on fertility decision-making (Chapter 3). In both analyses, a major construct is "unrealized fertility"---the disjuncture between the childbearing that individuals want and what they actually achieve. This disjuncture is evident in the aggregate-level means cited above, and it is evident in the individual-level experience captured in both the qualitative interviews and the survey data.Based on in-depth interviews conducted in 2022 following the introduction of the Three-Child Policy, Chapter 2 makes three arguments. 1) Rational choice theory --- for decades a controversial staple in fertility research --- aptly represents fertility decision-making in contemporary China. The interviews reveal that financial expense (e.g., housing affordability, schooling, etc.), the cost of maintaining the desired quality of life (broadly defined), and the desire to maximize one's self-actualization all work against having children. In contrast, a wish to receive old age support from children persists as a reason to have children. 2) While the afore-mentioned concerns are shared by men and women, there are important gender differences in the perceived costs and benefits of having children. Priorities and concerns specific to women are opportunity cost (including income lost and time lost), career development, and self-actualization through children, while concerns and priorities specific to men include passing down the family name or incurring no further expense in cases where they consider childrearing mainly a duty for mothers. 3) Socialization and intergenerational responsibilities are two key mechanisms that fundamentally drive many of the priorities and concerns that impact fertility decisions.Chapter 3 dives deeper into the multifaceted financial considerations that heavily influence decisions whether to have a child. I apply regression analysis to survey data collected in 2016 to investigate how financial factors contribute to the gap between desired and intended fertility (i.e. "unrealized fertility"). While most prior research has confined itself to a single or a few facets of the financial barriers to childbearing, the analysis in this chapter provides a more complete assessment of the determining power of a range of specific financial factors. Additionally, the design of the analysis allows the effects to differ by social context. The results demonstrate that 1) financial resources affect the translation of fertility desires into intentions (specifically, household income, receiving financial support from parents, and having savings facilitate the translation of desire into intention, while owning a home serves as an obstacle) and 2) these effects vary according to social contexts (specifically, owning an automobile significantly affect the fertility desire-intention mismatch in rural areas, whereas owning a house, savings, and parental financial support contribute to the desire-intention mismatch in urban areas.)Taken together, these two empirical analyses provide a rich portrait of the many contending considerations that bear on fertility decisions, a deeper understanding of unrealized fertility in China, and an in-depth investigation of the effect of financial resources on the fertility desire-intention mismatch. From this empirical evidence, one can conclude that most young adults in contemporary China are not deeply hostile to having children but in the end the weighing of costs and benefits argues against. For most young adults, having a first child is perceived as a costly decision, whether undertaken with enthusiasm or with a sense of familial obligation. Having a second child is widely recognized as a choice that should be foregone because costs overwhelm benefits. The emergent picture is a low fertility regime powerfully supported by multiple reinforcing social and economic institutions. Raising fertility above its low level --- now the explicit goal of the national government --- is likely to prove a difficult assignment.

ISBN: 9798380595292Subjects--Topical Terms:

516174
Sociology.
Subjects--Index Terms:

Fertility in China

Fertility in China: All Roads Lead to Low Fertility.
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502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Ohio State University, 2023.
520 $a Fertility in China has fallen to very low levels: the period TFR is 1.3 births per woman, and the mean ideal number of children has decreased to 1.8. Both actual and ideal fertility are now below the replacement level of two births per woman. Persistence of such low fertility has many consequences for Chinese society in both the short-term and long-term. These consequences can be evaluated as both positive and negative, although negative consequences now predominate in public discourse, in particular concern about the rapid aging of the Chinese populations, with its attendant economic and social repercussions. This dissertation offers a close examination of factors underlying and reinforcing low fertility in China. I make use of two separate bodies of empirical material: qualitative interviews conducted by the author that explore in depth young adults' views about the various costs and benefits of having children (Chapter 2); survey data that provides extensive measurement of financial factors that bear on fertility decision-making (Chapter 3). In both analyses, a major construct is "unrealized fertility"---the disjuncture between the childbearing that individuals want and what they actually achieve. This disjuncture is evident in the aggregate-level means cited above, and it is evident in the individual-level experience captured in both the qualitative interviews and the survey data.Based on in-depth interviews conducted in 2022 following the introduction of the Three-Child Policy, Chapter 2 makes three arguments. 1) Rational choice theory --- for decades a controversial staple in fertility research --- aptly represents fertility decision-making in contemporary China. The interviews reveal that financial expense (e.g., housing affordability, schooling, etc.), the cost of maintaining the desired quality of life (broadly defined), and the desire to maximize one's self-actualization all work against having children. In contrast, a wish to receive old age support from children persists as a reason to have children. 2) While the afore-mentioned concerns are shared by men and women, there are important gender differences in the perceived costs and benefits of having children. Priorities and concerns specific to women are opportunity cost (including income lost and time lost), career development, and self-actualization through children, while concerns and priorities specific to men include passing down the family name or incurring no further expense in cases where they consider childrearing mainly a duty for mothers. 3) Socialization and intergenerational responsibilities are two key mechanisms that fundamentally drive many of the priorities and concerns that impact fertility decisions.Chapter 3 dives deeper into the multifaceted financial considerations that heavily influence decisions whether to have a child. I apply regression analysis to survey data collected in 2016 to investigate how financial factors contribute to the gap between desired and intended fertility (i.e. "unrealized fertility"). While most prior research has confined itself to a single or a few facets of the financial barriers to childbearing, the analysis in this chapter provides a more complete assessment of the determining power of a range of specific financial factors. Additionally, the design of the analysis allows the effects to differ by social context. The results demonstrate that 1) financial resources affect the translation of fertility desires into intentions (specifically, household income, receiving financial support from parents, and having savings facilitate the translation of desire into intention, while owning a home serves as an obstacle) and 2) these effects vary according to social contexts (specifically, owning an automobile significantly affect the fertility desire-intention mismatch in rural areas, whereas owning a house, savings, and parental financial support contribute to the desire-intention mismatch in urban areas.)Taken together, these two empirical analyses provide a rich portrait of the many contending considerations that bear on fertility decisions, a deeper understanding of unrealized fertility in China, and an in-depth investigation of the effect of financial resources on the fertility desire-intention mismatch. From this empirical evidence, one can conclude that most young adults in contemporary China are not deeply hostile to having children but in the end the weighing of costs and benefits argues against. For most young adults, having a first child is perceived as a costly decision, whether undertaken with enthusiasm or with a sense of familial obligation. Having a second child is widely recognized as a choice that should be foregone because costs overwhelm benefits. The emergent picture is a low fertility regime powerfully supported by multiple reinforcing social and economic institutions. Raising fertility above its low level --- now the explicit goal of the national government --- is likely to prove a difficult assignment.
590 $a School code: 0168.
650 4 $a Sociology. $3 516174
650 4 $a Demography. $3 614991
653 $a Fertility in China
653 $a Fertility attitudes
653 $a Fertility intention
653 $a Low fertility
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690 $a 0938
710 2 $a The Ohio State University. $b Sociology. $3 1672138
773 0 $t Dissertations Abstracts International $g 85-04A.
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791 $a Ph.D.
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793 $a English
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