As market reforms and socioeconomic development have transformed the Chinese economy, family life... more As market reforms and socioeconomic development have transformed the Chinese economy, family life in rural and urban areas has also been directly and indirectly altered. Yet demographers who observe the rise of singlehood and sub-replacement fertility find confirmation of the universal application of theories in support of the Second Demographic Transition (SDT), while others find that high rates of marriage, near absence of births outside of marriage, and continuing centrality of intergenerational aid flows call for a more nuanced approach in China. In response to the still limited research on this rising diversity of contemporary family life in China, this special issue provides both theoretical insights and empirical evidence to examine how individualistic and familial values coexist, clash, and interact in different aspects of family life, and how gender relations and intergenerational politics have evolved at the same time.
China’s total fertility rate (TFR) has been below replacement level since the 1990s and below 1.5... more China’s total fertility rate (TFR) has been below replacement level since the 1990s and below 1.5 since the 2000s. To address the issue of low fertility and rapid aging, the Chinese government replaced the strict one-child family planning policy with the selective two-child family planning policy in 2013 and then the comprehensive two-child family planning policy in 2015. However, a strong baby boom did not ensue, and births hit a record low in 2018. It is thus vital to understand fertility motivation among younger generations of women. Collecting qualitative data in a small city in the Yangtze Delta, we found that the high costs of current practices of child raising and education are prominent factors in women’s mind-sets, and that bilateral family support, including but not limited to help with finances and care, is the cornerstone of this expensive, modern child raising model. A complex, bilateral family model has gradually grown out of the patriarchal system. Grandparents on both sides collaborate with the mother at different times of the day and in different stages of children’s development. A familial relay race of child care reduces the mother’s work-family conflicts. ¬e sustainability of mosaic familism, the gendered intergenerational collaboration following bilateral family lines, is questionable, particularly when raising children comes into conflict with caring for the elderly. We suggest that future policies pay sufficient attention to the needs of women who are embedded in the bilateral extended family.
This introduction paper briefly discusses the five empirical paper
and the theoretical theme that... more This introduction paper briefly discusses the five empirical paper and the theoretical theme that organize these papers for the special issue of “New Gender Dynamics in Post-reform China.” We introduce theoretically informed empirical research conducted by a young generation of family and gender scholars. Guided by the critiques over the separation and interaction between the public and private spheres occurring during China’s transition from a socialist economy to a market economy, they examine married women’s well-being, their decision-making regarding fertility, the gendered patterns of children’s household chores, female college students `transition from college to the job market, and rural migrant women’s paid domestic work in the city. Through the empirical research, the collection of articles aims to provide new evidence and enhance theoretical knowledge to further enrich our understanding of the complexities and dynamics of changing gender inequalities in the public and private spheres within Chinese society.
This qualitative research expands previous conceptualization
and theorizing of the separation and... more This qualitative research expands previous conceptualization and theorizing of the separation and interaction between the public and private spheres in post-reform urban China to rural migrant women working in urban middle-class women’s private family. Collecting data from a domestic service company and eleven rural nannies in Shanghai, we develop a theoretical framework of separated yet overlapped two spheres for rural women in the urban care service sector. We found that, for these rural nannies, the separation of the two spheres is elongated compared to urban working women. Geographically, their urban work place is far away from their village home. The scientific and intensive care they provided for the urban babies challenged their past mothering experiences, induced guilty toward their own children as an absent mother, and urged them to provide better care for their grandchildren in the future. Further, working in other’s family and developing bond with urban babies, the boundary between work and family became blurred and difficult to handle sometimes. We further discuss the intersectionality between gender, and other social dimensions.
Une mosaïque de temporalités : les nouvelles dynamiques de genre et du système du mariage dans la... more Une mosaïque de temporalités : les nouvelles dynamiques de genre et du système du mariage dans la Chine urbaine contemporaine Una temporalidad en mosaico: nuevas dinámicas del sistema matrimonial y de género en la China urbana contemporánea JI YINGCHUN Résumés English Français Español Contemporary Chinese society has witnessed ongoing complex institutional and cultural reconfiguration, driven by the transition from the socialist planned economy to marketization and later its deep engagement in globalization and neoliberalism. In this reshaping of Chinese society, tradition and modernity, the resurgence of patriarchal Confucian tradition, the socialist version of modernity, the capitalist version of modernity, and the socialist heritage intermingle, and all seem to define a mosaic temporality. Facing the increasing uncertainties of the market, family members in post-reform China have to stick together as an economic safety net, emotional harbor and spiritual fortress. Chinese parents heavily invest in their children and continue to support them in their adulthood; whereas, the youth is under great obligation to providing old age care for their parents; and parents may regard this heavily-invested offspring as their private product. This resurgent but modified familialism, is not an exact replication of traditional familialism, but is definitely different from the family modes featured by individualism in Western contexts. Mosaic familialism is characterized by a sequential symbiosis between parents and children facing financial constraints and unforeseeable uncertainties with a lack of a social safety net. At the same time, patriarchal Confucianism is rejuvenated to a certain degree, women's traditional wife and mother role is once again stressed, if not glorified; and the neoliberal discourse articulating personal choice and responsibility, but not individual right, stands by seamlessly. Parents and children, husband and wife are dependent on each other in the intimate family, following a clearly gendered pattern.
Over the last four decades, as China has transitioned from a socialist centralized economy to a p... more Over the last four decades, as China has transitioned from a socialist centralized economy to a productivity-and-efficiency-oriented market economy, so too have the country’s public and private spheres become increasingly differentiated. Although others attribute changing gender inequality to the market transition, we draw from Chinese feminist critical analyses and propose a theoretical framework regarding how the two-sphere separation in contemporary China, embedded in how gender equality was organized in the socialist time, has been driven by the state and is further justified by changing gender ideologies. We review the existing literature and identify gaps in research on how women’s disadvantages in the public and private spheres—in the labor market and within the family—mutually reinforce each other in post-reform urban China. We also discuss how the dynamics of, and interactions between, the two spheres are justified by a changing gender ideology. Finally, by exploring gender inequality in the process of the two-sphere separation in a transitional context, we make an important contribution to the general sociological and gender literature.
This study adopted event history analysis to examine timing and patterns of decision making of co... more This study adopted event history analysis to examine timing and patterns of decision making of contractive sterilization by Canadian men and women of various marital statuses. Data was employed from the 15th General Social Survey by Statistics Canada. Based on Gary ...
East Asian societies have undergone major changes in the past few decades, including substantial ... more East Asian societies have undergone major changes in the past few decades, including substantial declines in marriage and fertility. This article introduces the special section of Asian Families in Context by sketching commonalities and variations in patterns of marriage and family behavior in this region. A discussion of relevant theoretical frameworks from the Western literature follows. The final section briefly introduces the 6 empirical studies that comprise this section and discusses their relevance for developing and refining theory relevant to understanding family change in East Asia.
In recent years, China's single, educated women in big cities who are not yet married by their la... more In recent years, China's single, educated women in big cities who are not yet married by their late 20s have been increasingly castigated as “leftover” women. However, no solid evidence supports this notion that educated women are significantly delaying or forgoing marriage, compared to equally educated men in China, or equally educated women in other Asian societies. Why, then, has this societal anxiety emerged, and how do Chinese women themselves respond to it? Using semi-structured interviews, this qualitative research seeks to understand the motivations of single, education women in China, as well as the broader contextual contradictions regarding marriage and career in a transitioning society such as China, where “traditional” and “modern” values co-exist somewhat uneasily. Six themes emerge from the women’s narratives: parental pressure, gender double standard of aging, forced socioeconomic hypergamy, the importance of compatible family backgrounds, balancing women’s independence with support for family and men, and conflict of gender ideology. I explore these themes in relation to both China’s rapid process of modernization and the revitalization of tradition vis-à-vis certain cultural and social practices such as marriage formation.
This paper presents an examination of how religio-ethnic identity, individual religiosity, and fa... more This paper presents an examination of how religio-ethnic identity, individual religiosity, and family members’ religiosity are related to preferred family size in Nepal. Analyses of survey data from the Chitwan Valley Family Study show that socioeconomic characteristics and individual experiences can suppress, as well as largely account for, religio-ethnic differences in fertility preferences. These religio-ethnic differentials are associated with variance in particularized religious theologies or general value orientations (like son preference) across groups. In addition, individual and family religiosity are both positively associated with preferred family size, seemingly because of their association with religious beliefs that are likely to shape fertility strategies. These findings suggest improvements in how we conceptualize and empirically measure supra-individual religious influence in a variety of settings and for a range of demographically interesting outcomes.
"Background. Metabolic functions may operate as important biophysiological mechanisms through whi... more "Background. Metabolic functions may operate as important biophysiological mechanisms through which social relationship affects health. It is unclear from previous cross-sectional studies of small samples how social embeddedness or the lack thereof is related to risk of metabolic dysregulation. We filled this gap to test the effects of social integration on metabolic functions over time in a nationally representative sample of older adults in the U.S. and examined population heterogeneity in the effects.
Methods. Using longitudinal data from 4,323 adults aged 50+ in the Health and Retirement Study and latent growth curve models, we estimated the trajectories of social integration spanning five waves from 1998 to 2006 in relation to biomarkers of energy metabolism in 2006. We assessed social integration using a summary index of the number of social ties (with spouse, family, neighbors, or volunteering for social organization). We examined six biomarkers, including total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, glycosylated hemoglobin, waist circumference, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and the summary index of overall burden of metabolic dysregulation.
Results. High social integration predicted significantly lower risks of both individual and overall metabolic dysregulation. Specifically, adjusting for age, sex, race, and body mass index, having 4 to 5 social ties reduced the risks of abdominal obesity by 61% (OR [95%CI] = 0.39[0.23, 0.67], P=.007), hypertension by 41% (OR [95%CI] = 0.59[0.42, 0.84], P=.021), and the overall metabolic dysregulation by 46% (OR[95%CI]=0.54[0.4, 0.72], P<.001). And the OR for the overall burden remained significant adjusting for social, behavioral, and illness factors. In addition, stably high social integration had more potent metabolic impacts over time than changes therein. Such effects were consistent across subpopulations and more salient for the young-old, males, Whites, and socioeconomically disadvantaged.
Conclusions. This study addressed important challenges in previous research linking social integration to metabolic health by clarifying the nature and direction of the relationship as it applies to different objectively measured markers and population subgroups. It also suggests additional psychosocial and biological pathways to consider in future research on the contributions of social deficits to disease etiology and old age mortality.
Keywords: social integration; social network size; metabolic functions; total cholesterol; high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; glycosylated hemoglobin; waist circumference; blood pressure; older adults
"
"Objective: To examine whether quality of life (QOL), health status, and the relationships betwee... more "Objective: To examine whether quality of life (QOL), health status, and the relationships between them varied by having a prostate cancer history. This study helps to inform the interface between aging-related health decline and the survival state among older men with prostate cancer, which is an important yet understudied public health issue.
Methods: Hierarchical linear models were used to analyze the cross-sectional data from the nationally representative population-based Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Using propensity score matching, survivors (respondents with prostate cancer history) and controls (respondents without a history of any cancer) (N=193 pairs) were matched based on seven socio-demographic and health-related factors. QOL was measured using the mental and physical component scores of the SF12. Health status measures included comorbidities, activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and depressed mood.
Results: In bivariate analyses, survivors reported worse physical (p=.0040) and mental QOL (p=0.0295) and more comorbidities (p=0.0139) than controls, but similar ADL, IADL, and depressed mood. In multivariate analyses, regardless of cancer history,
better physical QOL was associated with fewer comorbidities (p<0.0001), better ADL (p=0.0011) and IADL (p=0.0162), and less depressed mood (p<0.0001); better mental QOL was associated with better IADL (p=.0005) and less depressed mood (p<0.0001).
Conclusions: QOL of older men is affected by physical, functional, and psychological factors rather than by prostate cancer history. Clinicians need to attend to aging-related health issues when providing care for prostate cancer survivors to improve QOL.
Key Words: quality of life; comorbidity; activity of daily living (ADL); depressed mood; propensity score; prostate cancer"
Is universal and early marriage still true in China after decades of dramatic socioeconomic chang... more Is universal and early marriage still true in China after decades of dramatic socioeconomic changes? Based on the 2005 Population Survey data, we find that by age 35-39, almost all women are married and less than 5% of men remain single with the singulate mean age at marriage (SMAM) in the country at 25.7 and 23.5 for men and women respectively. There are notable regional variations in marriage prevalence and timing across China, likely due to economic development, migration, and cultural norms particularly for ethnic minorities. Those who live in the East and in urban areas tend to enter marriage later. Universal and early marriage is particularly true for women with no education, and least so for men with no education. College education delays marriage for both men and women, but most of them eventually marry. We discuss the implications of findings for highly educated women and poorly educated men.
As market reforms and socioeconomic development have transformed the Chinese economy, family life... more As market reforms and socioeconomic development have transformed the Chinese economy, family life in rural and urban areas has also been directly and indirectly altered. Yet demographers who observe the rise of singlehood and sub-replacement fertility find confirmation of the universal application of theories in support of the Second Demographic Transition (SDT), while others find that high rates of marriage, near absence of births outside of marriage, and continuing centrality of intergenerational aid flows call for a more nuanced approach in China. In response to the still limited research on this rising diversity of contemporary family life in China, this special issue provides both theoretical insights and empirical evidence to examine how individualistic and familial values coexist, clash, and interact in different aspects of family life, and how gender relations and intergenerational politics have evolved at the same time.
China’s total fertility rate (TFR) has been below replacement level since the 1990s and below 1.5... more China’s total fertility rate (TFR) has been below replacement level since the 1990s and below 1.5 since the 2000s. To address the issue of low fertility and rapid aging, the Chinese government replaced the strict one-child family planning policy with the selective two-child family planning policy in 2013 and then the comprehensive two-child family planning policy in 2015. However, a strong baby boom did not ensue, and births hit a record low in 2018. It is thus vital to understand fertility motivation among younger generations of women. Collecting qualitative data in a small city in the Yangtze Delta, we found that the high costs of current practices of child raising and education are prominent factors in women’s mind-sets, and that bilateral family support, including but not limited to help with finances and care, is the cornerstone of this expensive, modern child raising model. A complex, bilateral family model has gradually grown out of the patriarchal system. Grandparents on both sides collaborate with the mother at different times of the day and in different stages of children’s development. A familial relay race of child care reduces the mother’s work-family conflicts. ¬e sustainability of mosaic familism, the gendered intergenerational collaboration following bilateral family lines, is questionable, particularly when raising children comes into conflict with caring for the elderly. We suggest that future policies pay sufficient attention to the needs of women who are embedded in the bilateral extended family.
This introduction paper briefly discusses the five empirical paper
and the theoretical theme that... more This introduction paper briefly discusses the five empirical paper and the theoretical theme that organize these papers for the special issue of “New Gender Dynamics in Post-reform China.” We introduce theoretically informed empirical research conducted by a young generation of family and gender scholars. Guided by the critiques over the separation and interaction between the public and private spheres occurring during China’s transition from a socialist economy to a market economy, they examine married women’s well-being, their decision-making regarding fertility, the gendered patterns of children’s household chores, female college students `transition from college to the job market, and rural migrant women’s paid domestic work in the city. Through the empirical research, the collection of articles aims to provide new evidence and enhance theoretical knowledge to further enrich our understanding of the complexities and dynamics of changing gender inequalities in the public and private spheres within Chinese society.
This qualitative research expands previous conceptualization
and theorizing of the separation and... more This qualitative research expands previous conceptualization and theorizing of the separation and interaction between the public and private spheres in post-reform urban China to rural migrant women working in urban middle-class women’s private family. Collecting data from a domestic service company and eleven rural nannies in Shanghai, we develop a theoretical framework of separated yet overlapped two spheres for rural women in the urban care service sector. We found that, for these rural nannies, the separation of the two spheres is elongated compared to urban working women. Geographically, their urban work place is far away from their village home. The scientific and intensive care they provided for the urban babies challenged their past mothering experiences, induced guilty toward their own children as an absent mother, and urged them to provide better care for their grandchildren in the future. Further, working in other’s family and developing bond with urban babies, the boundary between work and family became blurred and difficult to handle sometimes. We further discuss the intersectionality between gender, and other social dimensions.
Une mosaïque de temporalités : les nouvelles dynamiques de genre et du système du mariage dans la... more Une mosaïque de temporalités : les nouvelles dynamiques de genre et du système du mariage dans la Chine urbaine contemporaine Una temporalidad en mosaico: nuevas dinámicas del sistema matrimonial y de género en la China urbana contemporánea JI YINGCHUN Résumés English Français Español Contemporary Chinese society has witnessed ongoing complex institutional and cultural reconfiguration, driven by the transition from the socialist planned economy to marketization and later its deep engagement in globalization and neoliberalism. In this reshaping of Chinese society, tradition and modernity, the resurgence of patriarchal Confucian tradition, the socialist version of modernity, the capitalist version of modernity, and the socialist heritage intermingle, and all seem to define a mosaic temporality. Facing the increasing uncertainties of the market, family members in post-reform China have to stick together as an economic safety net, emotional harbor and spiritual fortress. Chinese parents heavily invest in their children and continue to support them in their adulthood; whereas, the youth is under great obligation to providing old age care for their parents; and parents may regard this heavily-invested offspring as their private product. This resurgent but modified familialism, is not an exact replication of traditional familialism, but is definitely different from the family modes featured by individualism in Western contexts. Mosaic familialism is characterized by a sequential symbiosis between parents and children facing financial constraints and unforeseeable uncertainties with a lack of a social safety net. At the same time, patriarchal Confucianism is rejuvenated to a certain degree, women's traditional wife and mother role is once again stressed, if not glorified; and the neoliberal discourse articulating personal choice and responsibility, but not individual right, stands by seamlessly. Parents and children, husband and wife are dependent on each other in the intimate family, following a clearly gendered pattern.
Over the last four decades, as China has transitioned from a socialist centralized economy to a p... more Over the last four decades, as China has transitioned from a socialist centralized economy to a productivity-and-efficiency-oriented market economy, so too have the country’s public and private spheres become increasingly differentiated. Although others attribute changing gender inequality to the market transition, we draw from Chinese feminist critical analyses and propose a theoretical framework regarding how the two-sphere separation in contemporary China, embedded in how gender equality was organized in the socialist time, has been driven by the state and is further justified by changing gender ideologies. We review the existing literature and identify gaps in research on how women’s disadvantages in the public and private spheres—in the labor market and within the family—mutually reinforce each other in post-reform urban China. We also discuss how the dynamics of, and interactions between, the two spheres are justified by a changing gender ideology. Finally, by exploring gender inequality in the process of the two-sphere separation in a transitional context, we make an important contribution to the general sociological and gender literature.
This study adopted event history analysis to examine timing and patterns of decision making of co... more This study adopted event history analysis to examine timing and patterns of decision making of contractive sterilization by Canadian men and women of various marital statuses. Data was employed from the 15th General Social Survey by Statistics Canada. Based on Gary ...
East Asian societies have undergone major changes in the past few decades, including substantial ... more East Asian societies have undergone major changes in the past few decades, including substantial declines in marriage and fertility. This article introduces the special section of Asian Families in Context by sketching commonalities and variations in patterns of marriage and family behavior in this region. A discussion of relevant theoretical frameworks from the Western literature follows. The final section briefly introduces the 6 empirical studies that comprise this section and discusses their relevance for developing and refining theory relevant to understanding family change in East Asia.
In recent years, China's single, educated women in big cities who are not yet married by their la... more In recent years, China's single, educated women in big cities who are not yet married by their late 20s have been increasingly castigated as “leftover” women. However, no solid evidence supports this notion that educated women are significantly delaying or forgoing marriage, compared to equally educated men in China, or equally educated women in other Asian societies. Why, then, has this societal anxiety emerged, and how do Chinese women themselves respond to it? Using semi-structured interviews, this qualitative research seeks to understand the motivations of single, education women in China, as well as the broader contextual contradictions regarding marriage and career in a transitioning society such as China, where “traditional” and “modern” values co-exist somewhat uneasily. Six themes emerge from the women’s narratives: parental pressure, gender double standard of aging, forced socioeconomic hypergamy, the importance of compatible family backgrounds, balancing women’s independence with support for family and men, and conflict of gender ideology. I explore these themes in relation to both China’s rapid process of modernization and the revitalization of tradition vis-à-vis certain cultural and social practices such as marriage formation.
This paper presents an examination of how religio-ethnic identity, individual religiosity, and fa... more This paper presents an examination of how religio-ethnic identity, individual religiosity, and family members’ religiosity are related to preferred family size in Nepal. Analyses of survey data from the Chitwan Valley Family Study show that socioeconomic characteristics and individual experiences can suppress, as well as largely account for, religio-ethnic differences in fertility preferences. These religio-ethnic differentials are associated with variance in particularized religious theologies or general value orientations (like son preference) across groups. In addition, individual and family religiosity are both positively associated with preferred family size, seemingly because of their association with religious beliefs that are likely to shape fertility strategies. These findings suggest improvements in how we conceptualize and empirically measure supra-individual religious influence in a variety of settings and for a range of demographically interesting outcomes.
"Background. Metabolic functions may operate as important biophysiological mechanisms through whi... more "Background. Metabolic functions may operate as important biophysiological mechanisms through which social relationship affects health. It is unclear from previous cross-sectional studies of small samples how social embeddedness or the lack thereof is related to risk of metabolic dysregulation. We filled this gap to test the effects of social integration on metabolic functions over time in a nationally representative sample of older adults in the U.S. and examined population heterogeneity in the effects.
Methods. Using longitudinal data from 4,323 adults aged 50+ in the Health and Retirement Study and latent growth curve models, we estimated the trajectories of social integration spanning five waves from 1998 to 2006 in relation to biomarkers of energy metabolism in 2006. We assessed social integration using a summary index of the number of social ties (with spouse, family, neighbors, or volunteering for social organization). We examined six biomarkers, including total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, glycosylated hemoglobin, waist circumference, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and the summary index of overall burden of metabolic dysregulation.
Results. High social integration predicted significantly lower risks of both individual and overall metabolic dysregulation. Specifically, adjusting for age, sex, race, and body mass index, having 4 to 5 social ties reduced the risks of abdominal obesity by 61% (OR [95%CI] = 0.39[0.23, 0.67], P=.007), hypertension by 41% (OR [95%CI] = 0.59[0.42, 0.84], P=.021), and the overall metabolic dysregulation by 46% (OR[95%CI]=0.54[0.4, 0.72], P<.001). And the OR for the overall burden remained significant adjusting for social, behavioral, and illness factors. In addition, stably high social integration had more potent metabolic impacts over time than changes therein. Such effects were consistent across subpopulations and more salient for the young-old, males, Whites, and socioeconomically disadvantaged.
Conclusions. This study addressed important challenges in previous research linking social integration to metabolic health by clarifying the nature and direction of the relationship as it applies to different objectively measured markers and population subgroups. It also suggests additional psychosocial and biological pathways to consider in future research on the contributions of social deficits to disease etiology and old age mortality.
Keywords: social integration; social network size; metabolic functions; total cholesterol; high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; glycosylated hemoglobin; waist circumference; blood pressure; older adults
"
"Objective: To examine whether quality of life (QOL), health status, and the relationships betwee... more "Objective: To examine whether quality of life (QOL), health status, and the relationships between them varied by having a prostate cancer history. This study helps to inform the interface between aging-related health decline and the survival state among older men with prostate cancer, which is an important yet understudied public health issue.
Methods: Hierarchical linear models were used to analyze the cross-sectional data from the nationally representative population-based Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Using propensity score matching, survivors (respondents with prostate cancer history) and controls (respondents without a history of any cancer) (N=193 pairs) were matched based on seven socio-demographic and health-related factors. QOL was measured using the mental and physical component scores of the SF12. Health status measures included comorbidities, activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and depressed mood.
Results: In bivariate analyses, survivors reported worse physical (p=.0040) and mental QOL (p=0.0295) and more comorbidities (p=0.0139) than controls, but similar ADL, IADL, and depressed mood. In multivariate analyses, regardless of cancer history,
better physical QOL was associated with fewer comorbidities (p<0.0001), better ADL (p=0.0011) and IADL (p=0.0162), and less depressed mood (p<0.0001); better mental QOL was associated with better IADL (p=.0005) and less depressed mood (p<0.0001).
Conclusions: QOL of older men is affected by physical, functional, and psychological factors rather than by prostate cancer history. Clinicians need to attend to aging-related health issues when providing care for prostate cancer survivors to improve QOL.
Key Words: quality of life; comorbidity; activity of daily living (ADL); depressed mood; propensity score; prostate cancer"
Is universal and early marriage still true in China after decades of dramatic socioeconomic chang... more Is universal and early marriage still true in China after decades of dramatic socioeconomic changes? Based on the 2005 Population Survey data, we find that by age 35-39, almost all women are married and less than 5% of men remain single with the singulate mean age at marriage (SMAM) in the country at 25.7 and 23.5 for men and women respectively. There are notable regional variations in marriage prevalence and timing across China, likely due to economic development, migration, and cultural norms particularly for ethnic minorities. Those who live in the East and in urban areas tend to enter marriage later. Universal and early marriage is particularly true for women with no education, and least so for men with no education. College education delays marriage for both men and women, but most of them eventually marry. We discuss the implications of findings for highly educated women and poorly educated men.
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fertility motivation among younger generations of women. Collecting qualitative data in a small city in the Yangtze Delta, we found that the high costs of current practices of child raising and education are prominent factors in women’s mind-sets, and that bilateral family support, including but not limited to help with finances and care, is the cornerstone of this expensive, modern child raising model. A complex, bilateral family model has gradually grown out of the patriarchal system.
Grandparents on both sides collaborate with the mother at different times of the day and in different stages of children’s development. A familial relay race of child care reduces the mother’s work-family conflicts. ¬e sustainability of mosaic familism, the gendered intergenerational collaboration following bilateral family lines, is questionable, particularly when raising children comes into conflict with caring for the elderly. We suggest that future policies pay sufficient attention to the needs of women who are embedded in the bilateral extended family.
以发现, 女性的工作—家庭冲突是关键; 设计具有社会性别视角的公共政策,
推动政府、社会、企业界和男女两性的多元主体参与是缓解女性工作—家庭冲突的社会机制; 提倡马克思主义男女平等的性别意识形态, 摈弃传统儒家父权思想和家族主义思想, 是缓解女性工作—家庭冲突的意识形态基础。鉴于女性的物质生产者和社会再生产者的双重身份, 促进公私领域性别平等的同步发展, 缓解女性的工作—家庭冲突, 将会对维持一定的生育率和经济发展都有积极贡献。
关键词:社会性别 经济发展 低生育率 全面两孩政策 工作—家庭冲突
and the theoretical theme that organize these papers for the special issue of “New Gender Dynamics in Post-reform China.” We introduce theoretically informed empirical research conducted by a young generation of family and gender scholars. Guided by the critiques over the separation and interaction between the public and private spheres occurring during China’s transition from a socialist economy to a market economy, they examine married women’s well-being, their decision-making regarding fertility, the gendered patterns of children’s household chores, female college students `transition from college to the job market, and rural migrant women’s paid domestic work in the city. Through the empirical research, the collection of articles aims to provide new evidence and enhance theoretical knowledge to further enrich our understanding of the complexities and dynamics of changing gender inequalities in the public and private spheres within Chinese society.
and theorizing of the separation and interaction between the public and
private spheres in post-reform urban China to rural migrant women working in urban middle-class women’s private family. Collecting data from a domestic service company and eleven rural nannies in Shanghai, we develop a theoretical framework of separated yet overlapped two spheres for rural women in the urban care service sector. We found that, for these rural nannies, the separation of the two spheres is elongated compared to urban working women. Geographically, their urban work place is far away from their village home. The scientific and intensive care they provided for the urban babies challenged their past mothering experiences, induced guilty toward their own children as an absent mother, and urged them to provide better care for their grandchildren in the future. Further, working in other’s family and developing bond with urban babies, the boundary between work and family became blurred
and difficult to handle sometimes. We further discuss the intersectionality between gender, and other social dimensions.
Contemporary Chinese society has witnessed ongoing complex institutional and cultural reconfiguration, driven by the transition from the socialist planned economy to marketization and later its deep engagement in globalization and neoliberalism. In this reshaping of Chinese society, tradition and modernity, the resurgence of patriarchal Confucian tradition, the socialist version of modernity, the capitalist version of modernity, and the socialist heritage intermingle, and all seem to define a mosaic temporality. Facing the increasing uncertainties of the market, family members in post-reform China have to stick together as an economic safety net, emotional harbor and spiritual fortress. Chinese parents heavily invest in their children and continue to support them in their adulthood; whereas, the youth is under great obligation to providing old age care for their parents; and parents may regard this heavily-invested offspring as their private product. This resurgent but modified familialism, is not an exact replication of traditional familialism, but is definitely different from the family modes featured by individualism in Western contexts. Mosaic familialism is characterized by a sequential symbiosis between parents and children facing financial constraints and unforeseeable uncertainties with a lack of a social safety net. At the same time, patriarchal Confucianism is rejuvenated to a certain degree, women's traditional wife and mother role is once again stressed, if not glorified; and the neoliberal discourse articulating personal choice and responsibility, but not individual right, stands by seamlessly. Parents and children, husband and wife are dependent on each other in the intimate family, following a clearly gendered pattern.
Methods. Using longitudinal data from 4,323 adults aged 50+ in the Health and Retirement Study and latent growth curve models, we estimated the trajectories of social integration spanning five waves from 1998 to 2006 in relation to biomarkers of energy metabolism in 2006. We assessed social integration using a summary index of the number of social ties (with spouse, family, neighbors, or volunteering for social organization). We examined six biomarkers, including total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, glycosylated hemoglobin, waist circumference, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and the summary index of overall burden of metabolic dysregulation.
Results. High social integration predicted significantly lower risks of both individual and overall metabolic dysregulation. Specifically, adjusting for age, sex, race, and body mass index, having 4 to 5 social ties reduced the risks of abdominal obesity by 61% (OR [95%CI] = 0.39[0.23, 0.67], P=.007), hypertension by 41% (OR [95%CI] = 0.59[0.42, 0.84], P=.021), and the overall metabolic dysregulation by 46% (OR[95%CI]=0.54[0.4, 0.72], P<.001). And the OR for the overall burden remained significant adjusting for social, behavioral, and illness factors. In addition, stably high social integration had more potent metabolic impacts over time than changes therein. Such effects were consistent across subpopulations and more salient for the young-old, males, Whites, and socioeconomically disadvantaged.
Conclusions. This study addressed important challenges in previous research linking social integration to metabolic health by clarifying the nature and direction of the relationship as it applies to different objectively measured markers and population subgroups. It also suggests additional psychosocial and biological pathways to consider in future research on the contributions of social deficits to disease etiology and old age mortality.
Keywords: social integration; social network size; metabolic functions; total cholesterol; high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; glycosylated hemoglobin; waist circumference; blood pressure; older adults
"
Methods: Hierarchical linear models were used to analyze the cross-sectional data from the nationally representative population-based Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Using propensity score matching, survivors (respondents with prostate cancer history) and controls (respondents without a history of any cancer) (N=193 pairs) were matched based on seven socio-demographic and health-related factors. QOL was measured using the mental and physical component scores of the SF12. Health status measures included comorbidities, activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and depressed mood.
Results: In bivariate analyses, survivors reported worse physical (p=.0040) and mental QOL (p=0.0295) and more comorbidities (p=0.0139) than controls, but similar ADL, IADL, and depressed mood. In multivariate analyses, regardless of cancer history,
better physical QOL was associated with fewer comorbidities (p<0.0001), better ADL (p=0.0011) and IADL (p=0.0162), and less depressed mood (p<0.0001); better mental QOL was associated with better IADL (p=.0005) and less depressed mood (p<0.0001).
Conclusions: QOL of older men is affected by physical, functional, and psychological factors rather than by prostate cancer history. Clinicians need to attend to aging-related health issues when providing care for prostate cancer survivors to improve QOL.
Key Words: quality of life; comorbidity; activity of daily living (ADL); depressed mood; propensity score; prostate cancer"
fertility motivation among younger generations of women. Collecting qualitative data in a small city in the Yangtze Delta, we found that the high costs of current practices of child raising and education are prominent factors in women’s mind-sets, and that bilateral family support, including but not limited to help with finances and care, is the cornerstone of this expensive, modern child raising model. A complex, bilateral family model has gradually grown out of the patriarchal system.
Grandparents on both sides collaborate with the mother at different times of the day and in different stages of children’s development. A familial relay race of child care reduces the mother’s work-family conflicts. ¬e sustainability of mosaic familism, the gendered intergenerational collaboration following bilateral family lines, is questionable, particularly when raising children comes into conflict with caring for the elderly. We suggest that future policies pay sufficient attention to the needs of women who are embedded in the bilateral extended family.
以发现, 女性的工作—家庭冲突是关键; 设计具有社会性别视角的公共政策,
推动政府、社会、企业界和男女两性的多元主体参与是缓解女性工作—家庭冲突的社会机制; 提倡马克思主义男女平等的性别意识形态, 摈弃传统儒家父权思想和家族主义思想, 是缓解女性工作—家庭冲突的意识形态基础。鉴于女性的物质生产者和社会再生产者的双重身份, 促进公私领域性别平等的同步发展, 缓解女性的工作—家庭冲突, 将会对维持一定的生育率和经济发展都有积极贡献。
关键词:社会性别 经济发展 低生育率 全面两孩政策 工作—家庭冲突
and the theoretical theme that organize these papers for the special issue of “New Gender Dynamics in Post-reform China.” We introduce theoretically informed empirical research conducted by a young generation of family and gender scholars. Guided by the critiques over the separation and interaction between the public and private spheres occurring during China’s transition from a socialist economy to a market economy, they examine married women’s well-being, their decision-making regarding fertility, the gendered patterns of children’s household chores, female college students `transition from college to the job market, and rural migrant women’s paid domestic work in the city. Through the empirical research, the collection of articles aims to provide new evidence and enhance theoretical knowledge to further enrich our understanding of the complexities and dynamics of changing gender inequalities in the public and private spheres within Chinese society.
and theorizing of the separation and interaction between the public and
private spheres in post-reform urban China to rural migrant women working in urban middle-class women’s private family. Collecting data from a domestic service company and eleven rural nannies in Shanghai, we develop a theoretical framework of separated yet overlapped two spheres for rural women in the urban care service sector. We found that, for these rural nannies, the separation of the two spheres is elongated compared to urban working women. Geographically, their urban work place is far away from their village home. The scientific and intensive care they provided for the urban babies challenged their past mothering experiences, induced guilty toward their own children as an absent mother, and urged them to provide better care for their grandchildren in the future. Further, working in other’s family and developing bond with urban babies, the boundary between work and family became blurred
and difficult to handle sometimes. We further discuss the intersectionality between gender, and other social dimensions.
Contemporary Chinese society has witnessed ongoing complex institutional and cultural reconfiguration, driven by the transition from the socialist planned economy to marketization and later its deep engagement in globalization and neoliberalism. In this reshaping of Chinese society, tradition and modernity, the resurgence of patriarchal Confucian tradition, the socialist version of modernity, the capitalist version of modernity, and the socialist heritage intermingle, and all seem to define a mosaic temporality. Facing the increasing uncertainties of the market, family members in post-reform China have to stick together as an economic safety net, emotional harbor and spiritual fortress. Chinese parents heavily invest in their children and continue to support them in their adulthood; whereas, the youth is under great obligation to providing old age care for their parents; and parents may regard this heavily-invested offspring as their private product. This resurgent but modified familialism, is not an exact replication of traditional familialism, but is definitely different from the family modes featured by individualism in Western contexts. Mosaic familialism is characterized by a sequential symbiosis between parents and children facing financial constraints and unforeseeable uncertainties with a lack of a social safety net. At the same time, patriarchal Confucianism is rejuvenated to a certain degree, women's traditional wife and mother role is once again stressed, if not glorified; and the neoliberal discourse articulating personal choice and responsibility, but not individual right, stands by seamlessly. Parents and children, husband and wife are dependent on each other in the intimate family, following a clearly gendered pattern.
Methods. Using longitudinal data from 4,323 adults aged 50+ in the Health and Retirement Study and latent growth curve models, we estimated the trajectories of social integration spanning five waves from 1998 to 2006 in relation to biomarkers of energy metabolism in 2006. We assessed social integration using a summary index of the number of social ties (with spouse, family, neighbors, or volunteering for social organization). We examined six biomarkers, including total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, glycosylated hemoglobin, waist circumference, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and the summary index of overall burden of metabolic dysregulation.
Results. High social integration predicted significantly lower risks of both individual and overall metabolic dysregulation. Specifically, adjusting for age, sex, race, and body mass index, having 4 to 5 social ties reduced the risks of abdominal obesity by 61% (OR [95%CI] = 0.39[0.23, 0.67], P=.007), hypertension by 41% (OR [95%CI] = 0.59[0.42, 0.84], P=.021), and the overall metabolic dysregulation by 46% (OR[95%CI]=0.54[0.4, 0.72], P<.001). And the OR for the overall burden remained significant adjusting for social, behavioral, and illness factors. In addition, stably high social integration had more potent metabolic impacts over time than changes therein. Such effects were consistent across subpopulations and more salient for the young-old, males, Whites, and socioeconomically disadvantaged.
Conclusions. This study addressed important challenges in previous research linking social integration to metabolic health by clarifying the nature and direction of the relationship as it applies to different objectively measured markers and population subgroups. It also suggests additional psychosocial and biological pathways to consider in future research on the contributions of social deficits to disease etiology and old age mortality.
Keywords: social integration; social network size; metabolic functions; total cholesterol; high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; glycosylated hemoglobin; waist circumference; blood pressure; older adults
"
Methods: Hierarchical linear models were used to analyze the cross-sectional data from the nationally representative population-based Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Using propensity score matching, survivors (respondents with prostate cancer history) and controls (respondents without a history of any cancer) (N=193 pairs) were matched based on seven socio-demographic and health-related factors. QOL was measured using the mental and physical component scores of the SF12. Health status measures included comorbidities, activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and depressed mood.
Results: In bivariate analyses, survivors reported worse physical (p=.0040) and mental QOL (p=0.0295) and more comorbidities (p=0.0139) than controls, but similar ADL, IADL, and depressed mood. In multivariate analyses, regardless of cancer history,
better physical QOL was associated with fewer comorbidities (p<0.0001), better ADL (p=0.0011) and IADL (p=0.0162), and less depressed mood (p<0.0001); better mental QOL was associated with better IADL (p=.0005) and less depressed mood (p<0.0001).
Conclusions: QOL of older men is affected by physical, functional, and psychological factors rather than by prostate cancer history. Clinicians need to attend to aging-related health issues when providing care for prostate cancer survivors to improve QOL.
Key Words: quality of life; comorbidity; activity of daily living (ADL); depressed mood; propensity score; prostate cancer"