Family life and Chinese adults’ happiness across the life span

An individual's happiness is closely related to their family life as the family is the institution in which they spend most of their life. Capitalizing on data from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies, this study investigates the relationship between family economic standing (measured by household income and homeownership) and family processes (measured by marital status and childlessness), as well as children's characteristics (measured by gender composition of children and adult children's educational attainment and marital status), and happiness of Chinese adults. We take a life-course perspective and examine how such relationships vary across different life stages. We find that factors like household income and homeownership are positively related to happiness for people in general; that married adults are happier than those who are unmarried; childlessness results in decreased individual happiness in old age; adult children's educational attainment, measured by college degree (three-year and four-year) and above, improves parents’ happiness; while children's unmarried status makes parents less happy. These significant relationships also change across the life span.

The trajectory of subjective social status and its multiple determinants in contemporary China

Subjective social status is an individual's perception of his/her position in the social stratum, and it shapes social inequality in a perceived way. By using the China Family Panel Studies and employing growth curve modeling strategies, this article examines the subjective social status trajectories of Chinese people between 2010 and 2018 and how these trajectories are shaped by objective social status. The empirical findings show that the distribution of subjective social status in each wave (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018) presents a middle-class identification, which means that the majority of people tend to position their subjective social status at the middle level, while the overall trend in average subjective social status has increased over time. The results of trajectory analysis show that different objective socioeconomic status indicators have different effects on the baseline value and rate of growth in subjective social status, which suggests that the trajectories of subjective social status are influenced by multiple determinants in China. While education, income and political capital reduce the gaps between the classes in subjective social status over time, wealth and employment status enlarge these gaps and thus enhance subjective social inequality. This article highlights the gradient effect that wealth has on the dynamics of subjective social status and helps us to better understand subjective social stratification in contemporary China.

Trends and socioeconomic differentials in depression prevalence in China, 2010–2018

Numerous studies have investigated the prevalence and social correlates of depression in China, but less is known about trends in depression prevalence and inequalities across time. Using nationally representative data from the China Family Panel Studies, we examine patterns of depressive symptoms over time from 2010 to 2018 among Chinese adults. We assess trends across time in depression disparities by educational attainment and household income using random-intercept logistic regression models. We find that the overall prevalence of depressive symptoms increased significantly in China over this period of time; increases in depression were significant for men and women, rural and urban residents, and the non-elderly. We also find that the rate of increase in depressive symptoms was more rapid among people with high levels of education and family income. Thus, though depression inequalities favor higher socioeconomic groups, this disparity is declining.

Exploring Chinese folk religion: Popularity, diffuseness, and diversities

Folk religion, as the basis of the religious landscape in traditional China, is a highly syncretic system which includes elements from Buddhism, Daoism, and other traditional religious beliefs. Due to the shortcomings of denomination-based measurement, most previous social surveys have documented a very low percentage of folk religion adherents in China, and found almost no overlapping among religious beliefs. This study offers a quantitative portrait of the popularity, the diffuseness, and the diversity of Chinese folk religion. With the improved instruments in the 2018 China Family Panel Studies, we first observe that nearly 50% of respondents claim to have multiple (two or even more than three) religious beliefs and the believers of folk religion account for about 70% of the population. By using latent class analysis, this article explores the pattern of inter-belief mixing and identifies four typical classes of religious believers: “non-believers and single-belief believers”, “believers of geomancy”, “believers of diffused Buddhism and Daoism”, and “believers embracing all beliefs”. Finally, we find that the degree of commitment varies across these religious classes. Believers of folk religion are found to be less committed than believers of Western institutional religions, but as committed as believers of Eastern institutional religions.

Union formation and childbearing among Chinese youth: Trends and socioeconomic differentials

Driven by economic development, ideational changes and family planning policies, the Chinese family has experienced significant change over the past several decades. Based on data from the 2018 wave of the China Family Panel Studies, this study analyzes China’s younger generations’ union formation and childbearing behaviors. The results show that although the average age of entry into a first marriage continues to rise, young people generally express a desire to enter into marriage and value the creation of a family. As premarital cohabitation became more prevalent, its determinants change from the “second demographic transition” model to the “pattern of disadvantage” model. The differences between cohabitors and non-cohabitors in premarital conception, premarital childbirth and divorce diminished in the recent cohorts. The findings suggest that the age of childbearing for Chinese women remains relatively early. The implementation of the “universal two-child policy” in 2015 has also encouraged younger women’s childbearing. Among those born in the 1980s, almost half have already given birth to a second child. The ideal number of children has declined across birth cohorts in China, especially for individuals with a higher educational level and urban hukou. In summary, changes in union formation and childbearing among Chinese youth imply that China will be facing a further rise in the first marriage age and a further decline in the fertility rate. However, voluntary singlehood will remain rare, and Chinese youth still value the importance of marriage and childbearing.

Social-demographic correlates of mindset in China

Mindset, growth or fixed, refers to two different beliefs people hold about the underlying nature of ability, and was first put forward by the psychologist Carol Dweck. The central role of mindset in motivation, self-regulation and interpersonal processes has been the subject of growing research interest, but there are few discussions of mindset in the context of China. Using the China Family Panel Studies, this study aims to offer a comprehensive understanding of social-demographic correlates of mindset in China. Following the psychological literature, we construct a binary status of mindset via exploratory factor analysis. We find that place of origin (rural or urban), educational level, employment status and life-course events are correlated to mindset. It is also determined that mindset acts as a fundamental psychological factor strongly associated with multiple outcomes, including educational attainment, cognitive skills, attitudes and subject well-being.

Living with grandparents: Multi-generational families and the academic performance of grandchildren in China

Previous studies on social stratification and intergenerational mobility have mostly focused on the effects of parents on their children’s socioeconomic status (SES) attainment, but less attention has been paid to the important role played by grandparents in the life chances of their grandchildren, and its underlying mechanism. By analyzing a national survey sample data of junior high school students in China, this study examines the influence factors of living with grandparents and their effect on the academic performance of adolescents, and the intermediate mechanism. The study finds that (a) three-generation cohabitation occurs when there is a functional need for the nuclear family, and children with lower SES, working mothers, or single-parent families are more likely to experience cohabitation between grandparents and grandchildren; (b) living with grandparents has significant positive effects on adolescents’ academic performance after controlling for other factors; (c) the effect of living with grandparents is moderated by the family’s SES and family structure, and students from lower-SES or single-parent families benefit more from living with grandparents; and (d) living with grandparents to a certain extent benefits grandchildren’s academic performance by enhancing family social capital investment. Households in which grandparents cohabit invest significantly more in the social capital of children than those who do not have grandparents cohabiting. The results of this study show that in modern society, family kinship networks still play a very important role in the status attainment and social mobility of individuals. Therefore, scholars should pay more attention to the important role of extended families in social stratification and mobility and its micro-mechanisms.

Double-track governance in traditional Chinese society: Dialectics between the enfeoffment system of fiefdom and the bureaucratic prefectural system

Beginning in the Yin-Zhou and Qin-Han periods, development of the Chinese imperial system revolved around the dialectical tension between the “enfeoffmental system of fiefdom” ( fengjian zhi, or the fengjian system) and the bureaucratic prefectural system ( junxian zhi, or the junxian system). In Fei Xiaotong’s words, this was a dual-track politics of the “power of the monarch” and the “power of the gentry”. Under the enfeoffmental system of fiefdom, the relationship between the monarch and his kinsfolk was governed by the Confucian hierarchical principle of “favoring the intimate” ( qin-qin) and “respecting the superior” ( zun-zun), and ritualized by the patriarchal order of clan, mourning rites, and ancestral worship. In addition, the “mandate of Heaven” solidified an organic relationship between the emperor and his subjects and became the foundation for monarchical rule. The bureaucratic prefectural system highlighted the historical change since the Warring States period, which had abolished the enfeoffmental fiefdom system and given birth to the concept of “all-under-Heaven” ( gong tianxia). Thinkers like Wang Fuzhi and Gu Yanwu placed emphasis on the enfeoffmental system of fiefdom as a counterpart of to the bureaucratic prefectural system which helped break up the centralization of power and renew the debate on the dialectic between “public” and “private”. In sum, the enfeoffmental system of fiefdom in China still needs to be clarified through re-examining the Classics.

The party–government relationship in the Chinese bureaucracy: Evidence from patterns of personnel flow

The party–government relationship is central in the governance of the People’s Republic of China, with its key characteristic being the former’s dominance over the latter. Focusing on personnel management practices and the resulting patterns of personnel flow across positions and offices in the Chinese bureaucracy, we examine the party–government relationship in light of personnel flows across the party and government sectors, and the offices/bureaus and positions therein, in the context of a large, multilayered Chinese bureaucracy. Previous research in this field has evinced two different lines of inquiry. The first focuses on personnel flows in the Chinese bureaucracy, with an emphasis on individual-level career trajectories, mobility patterns, and associated incentive mechanisms, wherein party–government relations are given minimal attention. The second tends to provide descriptive or normative accounts of party–government relations and their historical evolution but has not examined these relations in a quantitative and analytical manner. Our study builds on and goes beyond these existing studies in several ways. First, we propose a perspective that focuses on personnel management and patterns of personnel flow across positions and offices in the party–government relationship. We take the existing party–government structures as our starting point and examine how personnel flow patterns, or the lack thereof, provide information on the degree of personnel mixing between, and the interconnectedness or separateness of, the party and government sectors, areas, and offices. Second, we develop a set of analytical dimensions and measures to capture different aspects of the party–government relationship, such as the degree of stability and specialization in party and government positions and offices. We also propose measures of personnel mixing and interconnectedness between party and government offices. Third, we apply these analytical dimensions and measures to systematically examine the multifaceted patterns of personnel flow and the resulting party–government relations in a large Chinese bureaucracy at the provincial, municipal, and county levels in an entire province, between 1990 and 2008, with over 40,000 key officials and over 300,000 person–year records. Our findings show that there are noticeable variations in patterns of personnel flow among party and government positions and offices, with the former experiencing higher rates of mobility and more generalist characteristics. On the other hand, we also find considerable mixing and interconnectedness among positions and offices between the party and government sectors. These findings suggest that, in the Chinese bureaucracy, party–government positions are organized into an integrated hierarchical order whose boundaries are formal in structure but fluid in terms of personnel flows, especially in those key positions in different administrative jurisdictions.

Variation in criteria of examination grades from the perspective of “control rights” theory: An analysis of the grading of history as a subject in the new gaokao

Existing literature on national governance models has focused on the analysis of long-term, stable public organizational processes between different levels of governmental and social organizations. In contemporary China, a considerable part of the organization and implementation process in public services relies on cooperation among different local governmental institutions and social groups. This type of process is characterized by short-termism and instability. This paper uses the perspective of the “control rights” theory to analyze the relationship between the three parties: the principal, management, and the implementation agency in the case of the phenomenon of grading criteria variation in the grading of history as a subject in the gaokao (college-entrance examination) of Province X. This paper shows that although the relationship shows a high degree of correlation, the three parties do not belong to the same bureaucratic organization and lack administrative oversight within the process, which increases the uncertainty in negotiation and maneuvering, resulting in two issues: First, the principal party and management party often have divergent views on targets. With the advantage of controlling incentive distribution, the principal party is able to involve itself in the inspection and evaluation of policy implementation, and therefore maintains the ability to arbitrarily intervene in the process. Second, implementation agency behavior is constantly influenced and modified by feedback from the principal party and the management party, and vice versa. In the process of continuous feedback and adjustment, the three parties gradually reach their own shared understanding of policy implementation that becomes the cause of local variation in grading standards. This paper suggests that unstable public organization process is an important area of study on contemporary Chinese governance. Control rights theory can be further explored as an analytic tool and strategies of various social forces in gaining organizational control should also be investigated in depth.