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Impact of Internal Migration on Sexual Attitudes in China: The Moderating Role of Internet Use

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Abstract

Using nationally representative data from China, this paper investigated the impact of internal migration on sexual attitudes and whether this relationship is moderated by Internet use. We provide evidence that internal migration had a significantly positive impact on attitudes toward the acceptance of premarital sex, extramarital sex, and homosexuality. We also found that the positive nexus between internal migration and sexual attitudes was moderated by Internet use. The results further indicated that internal migration influenced sexual attitudes through extrication from traditional gender role values, the deterioration of subjective well-being, and the improvement of economic status.

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Data Availability

The CGSS data in our study are publicly available in http://cgss.ruc.edu.cn/index.php?r=index/index&hl=en.

Notes

  1. There are huge differences in terms of economic development and cultural values between China and Western societies. For instance, China’s economic development has been accompanied by gradual social change, without the large-scale political or social unrest seen in Russia (Yip et al., 2007). From the perspective of cultural values, China is ethnically homogeneous, which is different from Western countries such as the USA, whose ethnic fractionalization index is relatively higher (Churchill & Mishra, 2017).

  2. We also adopted a propensity score matching approach to mitigate the possible selection bias of migration. Additionally, we have performed several robustness checks to examine whether the impact of internal migration on sexual attitudes was sensitive to different measures (using a composite indicator for sexual attitudes and dichotomous measures of sexual attitudes) and estimation approaches (using the ordered-logit and IV-probit methods). All in all, the estimated results were quite robust and consistent. These results are available from the authors upon request.

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Numbers: 71603052; 71804142; 72074178) and the Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education (Grant Number: 16YJCZH065).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The West Center for Economic Research, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China

    Haiyang Lu

  2. School of Economics and Finance, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710061, China

    Peng Nie

  3. Institute of Food Economics, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nanjing, China

    Long Qian

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  1. Haiyang Lu
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  2. Peng Nie
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Contributions

Conceptualization: [HL], [PN], [LQ]; Methodology: [HL], [PN]; Formal analysis and investigation: [HL]; Writing—original draft preparation: [HL], [PN], [LQ]; Writing—review and editing: [HL], [PN], [LQ]; Funding acquisition: [HL], [PN]; Resources: [HL], [PN]; Supervision: [HL], [PN], [LQ].

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Correspondence to Peng Nie.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This is an observational study. The Southwestern University of Finance and Economic Research Ethics Committee has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.

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Lu, H., Nie, P. & Qian, L. Impact of Internal Migration on Sexual Attitudes in China: The Moderating Role of Internet Use. Arch Sex Behav 52, 255–266 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02155-w

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