| 其他摘要 | China’s fertility rate continues to decrease for several years, which has become an important issue in various fields. As early as 1970s, birth rate in western countries began to decline. Psychologists proposed that the “value of children” (VOC) was an important psychological factor influencing women’s fertility rate, and individual objective external factors as well as subjective factors would influence people’s fertility desires and behaviors through VOC. Besides, declining birth rate revealed parents tended to reduce the number of children and put more emphasis on the quality of parenting. Therefore, while encouraging fertility, we also need to pay attention to the quality of parenting. This research based on the concepts and related theories of value of children in western culture, aiming to construct a structural model to explore factors influencing the fertility desires and parenting behaviors among Chinese of childbearing age in the background of universal second-child policy, which may provide psychological help for government in population policy and family parenting support. This research consisted of three studies: Study1 investigated current value of children and its differences over time; Study2 investigated the impact of VOC on fertility desires; Study3 investigated parenting behaviors.
In sum, (1) VOC included two aspects: the positive value of children (VOC+) and negative value of children (VOC-) in current cohort of childbearing age. VOC+ was a structure of three dimensions: The “utility VOC”, “psychological VOC”, and “family-individual VOC”. The “psychological VOC” was most important for parents to have children, while the importance of “utility VOC” was lowest. VOC- was a structure of three dimensions: The “external burden”, “psychological burden”, and “personal and resource constraint”. The “psychological burden” was highest in parents who did not want to have children. (2) VOC in current cohort of childbearing age was differed in gender (men rated higher in “utility VOC”, while women rated higher in “external burden”), in urban-rural area (individuals from remote rural areas rated higher in “utility VOC” than the ones in cities, while individuals from cities put more emphasis on children’s “psychological VOC” as well as “external burden” and “psychological burden”), and in generations (“utility VOC” declined over time, as “psychological VOC” increased.). (3) “Utility VOC” positively predicted fertility desire in rural area; “Psychological VOC” positively predicted fertility desire in urban area; “External burden” and “psychological burden” negatively predicted fertility desire in urban area. (4) “Psychological VOC” was an important mediator in the influence of individuals’ education level, income and life satisfaction on fertility desire: the higher was individuals’ educational level, income and life satisfaction, the lower was their fertility desires, but they took “psychological VOC” into consideration, they would improve the willingness to give birth to a child. (5) “Psychological VOC” positively mediated in the relationship of educational level, life satisfaction with positive parenting behaviors, respectively. “Utility VOC” and “external burden” negatively mediated in the relationship of educational level, life satisfaction with negative parenting behaviors in rural area.
These above conclusions reminded us that when we encouraged child delivering and promoted positive parenting, we were supposed to guide individuals to pay more attention to psychologic factors, especially “value of children”. We should also focus on characteristics of different groups to take relevant actions. For example, for women and groups in developed areas, attention should be paid to the improvement of family support, social support and nurturing facilities to reduce the negative parenting related to “external burdens”. We founded that “utility VOC” of children would promote the willingness to deliver babies, but increase negative parenting behaviors at the same time. Government should pay attention to the possibility that the rural groups may have more children but neglect positive parenting after the implementation of the childbirth policy, which will decrease the quality of fertility. |
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