Prof. Sampson Lee Blair
Department of Sociology, The State University of New York (Buffalo), USA
Title: Marriage, Fertility, and the Changing Aspirations of Young Adults in China: Examining the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Abstract:
In a manner similar to that of young women and men around the globe, young adults in China develop aspirations for a variety of adult goals. Among the various aspirations they develop are those pertaining to marriage and childbearing. The current generation of young adults, however, have lived through the tumultuous time of the global pandemic. The effects of the pandemic were many, and the disruption of normal relationships (e.g., dating partners) was quite substantial. For most young adults, the period of the pandemic involved relative isolation, and left many with only online connections (e.g., WeChat) as their primary opportunity for maintaining relationships and, thereby, to develop aspirations for marriage and fertility. Prior to the pandemic, China had experienced steady declines in both marriage and fertility rates, while cohabitation and singlehood rates were on the rise. Hence, at a time when young adults were seemingly less inclined to want to marry and have children, the pandemic thrust them into relative isolation and, thereby, left many without the opportunity to pursue intimate relationships in a “normal” manner. The extent to which the pandemic may have affected marriage and fertility aspirations remains unknown.
In order to better understand the nature of the impact of the pandemic upon marriage and childbearing aspirations, this study uses survey data from young women and men enrolled in public universities across China. The data were taken from the pre-pandemic period (2018-2019) and the immediate post-pandemic period (2022-2023), thus allowing for a comparison of the two time periods. Among both sexes, there was a substantial decline in aspirations for marriage and childbearing across the two time periods. In the post-pandemic sample, approximately 16% of females and 18% of males stated that they do not wish to marry. In regards to childbearing, almost one-third of females stated that they do not wish to have children, while approximately 10% of males felt likewise. Family and parental factors, such as filial piety, are shown to be substantially associated with males’ aspirations during the pre-pandemic period, but less so during the post-pandemic. Among females, aspirations for both marriage and childbearing are shown to be strongly linked to their valuation of marriage and parenthood, themselves. The changes across the pandemic periods suggest that young adults’ aspirations for marriage and parenthood are more likely to be affected by individual factors, while family and parental factors seem to have diminished in their relative impact upon aspirations. The implications of these findings for marriage and fertility patterns in the near future are discussed within the modernization paradigm.
Biography:
Dr. Sampson Lee Blair is a family sociologist and demographer at The State University of New York (Buffalo). His research focuses upon parent-child relationships, with particular emphasis on child and adolescent development. In 2010, he received the Fulbright Scholar Award from the U.S. Department of State, wherein he studied parental involvement and children’s educational attainment in the Philippines. He has examined a wide variety of relationship dynamics within families. His recent research has focused upon marriage and fertility patterns in China.
He has served as chair of the Children and Youth research section of the American Sociological Association, as senior editor of Sociological Inquiry, Guest Editor of Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, and on the editorial boards of Asian Women, Journal of Applied Youth Studies, Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, Journal of Family Issues, Marriage and Family Review, Social Justice Research, Sociological Inquiry, International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, and Sociological Viewpoints. He also serves on the international advisory board of Tambara, which is based at Ateneo de Davao University, in the Philippines. In 2018, he was elected as Vice-President (North America) of the Research Committee on Youth (RC34), in the International Sociological Association. In 2021, he received the Distinguished Career Service Award from the American Sociological Association, for his work with children and youth.
He is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and has taught abroad as a visiting professor at Xavier University (Ateneo de Cagayan) and University of Santo Tomas, in the Philippines. In China, he has taught at Qingdao University, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and at East China Normal University (Shanghai). Since 2011, he has served as the editor of Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research.