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The Intergenerational Effect and Second Childbirth: Survey Findings from the Shaanxi Province of China

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Abstract

Traditionally, the fertility behaviors of Chinese people have been deeply influenced by the entrenched patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal systems. Women’s fertility decisions and behaviors are significantly influenced by their parents and parents-in-law. Given the current social changes with low fertility levels and intentions in China, it is still unclear about the actual link between the fertility behavior and the intergenerational effect. Therefore, we utilize data from 1577 questionnaires, conducted in 2013 in the Shaanxi Province of northwest China about fertility intentions and behaviors, and use the event history analysis method and the Cox proportional hazard model to explore the association between intergenerational effects and women’s second childbirths. “The number of the parental generation’s children” and “the living arrangements of the parental generation” are employed to measure the intergenerational effect. The findings show that there is an existence of intergenerational transmission of fertility between women of childbearing age and their parents-in-law, rather than their biological parents when considering the effects of their parents-in-law. In addition, the study finds a significant correlation between women’s second childbirth and the living arrangements of their parents-in-law, but no significant association with the living arrangements of their biological parents. These results support that the patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal systems play a role in women’s fertility behaviors in contemporary China.

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Notes

  1. According to Bongaarts and Feeney (2010), a TFR tempo effect, is the difference between the observed TFR for a given year and the value that would have been observed if the period mean age at childbearing had remained constant at the value observed at the beginning of the year.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Population and Development Studies, School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi Province, China

    Ying Li & Quanbao Jiang

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  1. Ying Li
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  2. Quanbao Jiang
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Correspondence to Quanbao Jiang.

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Li, Y., Jiang, Q. The Intergenerational Effect and Second Childbirth: Survey Findings from the Shaanxi Province of China. Soc Indic Res 133, 669–691 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-016-1386-2

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