IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ariqol/v18y2023i6d10.1007_s11482-023-10226-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Motherhood Dilemma and Gendered Well-being among Chinese Couples

Author

Listed:
  • Yan Li

    (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire)

Abstract

This research examines how a variety of factors, primarily parenthood and work, are associated with cognitive dimensions of gendered well-being in China. By using the World Value Survey Wave 7 data, we find that having children is valuable for Chinese women’s happiness in the short term, but it is no longer a necessity for them to gain higher satisfaction with life over time. Welfare-wise, a single child appears to be preferable for women, regardless of birth caps. Occupational status matters more than fatherhood for husbands’ happiness, while wives’ employment and own well-being are negatively and insignificantly related. The implications of our study are discussed, and policy recommendations are made to tackle motherhood dilemma and promote gender equality and female workforce participation.

Suggested Citation

  • Yan Li, 2023. "Motherhood Dilemma and Gendered Well-being among Chinese Couples," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(6), pages 3169-3198, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:18:y:2023:i:6:d:10.1007_s11482-023-10226-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11482-023-10226-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11482-023-10226-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11482-023-10226-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rachel Margolis & Mikko Myrskylä, 2015. "Parental Well-being Surrounding First Birth as a Determinant of Further Parity Progression," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(4), pages 1147-1166, August.
    2. Makiko Hori & Yoshinori Kamo, 2018. "Gender Differences in Happiness: the Effects of Marriage, Social Roles, and Social Support in East Asia," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 13(4), pages 839-857, December.
    3. Sophie Cetre & Andrew E. Clark & Claudia Senik, 2016. "Happy People Have Children: Choice and Self-Selection into Parenthood," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 445-473, August.
    4. Hongyun Zheng & Wanglin Ma, 2022. "Scan the QR Code of Happiness: Can Mobile Payment Adoption Make People Happier?," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(4), pages 2299-2310, August.
    5. Shawn Grover & John F. Helliwell, 2019. "How’s Life at Home? New Evidence on Marriage and the Set Point for Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 373-390, February.
    6. Boris Nikolaev & Pavel Rusakov, 2016. "Education and happiness: an alternative hypothesis," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(12), pages 827-830, August.
    7. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01383781 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Donghwan Kim, 2018. "Cross-National Pattern of Happiness: Do Higher Education and Less Urbanization Degrade Happiness?," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 13(1), pages 21-35, March.
    9. Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn & Rubia Rocha Valente, 2018. "Life Satisfaction of Career Women and Housewives," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 13(3), pages 603-632, September.
    10. Qiang Li & Lian An, 2020. "Corruption Takes Away Happiness: Evidence from a Cross-National Study," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 485-504, February.
    11. Sofie Vanassche & Gray Swicegood & Koen Matthijs, 2013. "Marriage and Children as a Key to Happiness? Cross-National Differences in the Effects of Marital Status and Children on Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 501-524, April.
    12. Márta K. Radó, 2020. "Tracking the Effects of Parenthood on Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Hungary," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(6), pages 2069-2094, August.
    13. Marta Kowal & Agata Groyecka-Bernard & Marta Kochan-Wójcik & Piotr Sorokowski, 2021. "When and how does the number of children affect marital satisfaction? An international survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(4), pages 1-14, April.
    14. Consuelo Novoa & Claudio Bustos & Vasily Bühring & Karen Oliva & Darío Páez & Pablo Vergara-Barra & Félix Cova, 2021. "Subjective Well-Being and Parenthood in Chile," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-14, July.
    15. Ma, Wanglin & Vatsa, Puneet & Zheng, Hongyun, 2022. "Cooking fuel choices and subjective well-being in rural China: Implications for a complete energy transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sahoo, Dukhabandhu & Mohanty, Pritisudha & Mishra, Surbhi & Behera, Manash & Mohapatra, Souryabrata, 2024. "Does climate-smart agriculture technology improve the subjective well-being of farmers? Evidence from micro-level data," MPRA Paper 123955, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Andrew E. Clark & Anthony Lepinteur, 2022. "A Natural Experiment on Job Insecurity and Fertility in France," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(2), pages 386-398, May.
    3. Houxi Zhou & Xuebiao Zhang & Candi Ge & Jingyi Wang & Xiaolong Sun, 2023. "Does Internet Use Boost the Sustainable Subjective Well-Being of Rural Residents? Evidence from Rural China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-16, January.
    4. Márta K. Radó, 2020. "Tracking the Effects of Parenthood on Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Hungary," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(6), pages 2069-2094, August.
    5. Zhongkun Zhu & Wanglin Ma & Chenxin Leng & Peng Nie, 2021. "The Relationship Between Happiness and Consumption Expenditure: Evidence from Rural China," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 1587-1611, August.
    6. Jona Schellekens, 2019. "Does the association between children and happiness vary by level of religiosity? The evidence from Israel," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(5), pages 103-124.
    7. Xiaoting Zheng & Jiayue Chen & Yipeng Li, 2021. "The association between charitable giving and happiness: Evidence from the Chinese General Social Survey," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(6), pages 2103-2138, December.
    8. Jan Priebe, 2020. "Quasi-experimental evidence for the causal link between fertility and subjective well-being," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 839-882, July.
    9. Degli Antoni, Giacomo & Vittucci Marzetti, Giuseppe, 2022. "Estimating the effect on happiness through question randomization: An application to blood donation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    10. Advani, Bhavya & Pradhan, Ashis Kumar & Mohindra, Vinita & Sreenu, Nenavath, 2024. "Demystifying the nexus between Forest cover and happiness: A study of global economies," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    11. Giulia M. Dotti Sani, 2022. "The Intrinsic Value of Childcare: Positive Returns of Childcare Time on Parents’ Well-Being and Life Satisfaction in Italy," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 1901-1921, June.
    12. Mingzhi Hu & Yulu Yang & Xiaofen Yu, 2020. "Living better and feeling happier: An investigation into the association between housing quality and happiness," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 1224-1238, September.
    13. Andrew E. Clark, 2018. "Four Decades of the Economics of Happiness: Where Next?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 245-269, June.
    14. Xiaoyu Yu & Xiaotong Meng & Laura Stanley & Franz W. Kellermanns, 2024. "Self-employment and life satisfaction: The contingent role of formal institutions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 135-163, June.
    15. Tomas Hanell, 2022. "Unmet Aspirations and Urban Malaise," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 83-103, November.
    16. Ma, Wanglin & Vatsa, Puneet & Zheng, Hongyun, 2022. "Cooking fuel choices and subjective well-being in rural China: Implications for a complete energy transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    17. Sandner, Malte, 2019. "Effects of early childhood intervention on fertility and maternal employment: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 159-181.
    18. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew E. Clark, 2021. "Children, unhappiness and family finances," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 625-653, April.
    19. Papageorgiou, Athanasios, 2018. "The Effect of Immigration on the Well-Being of Native Populations: Evidence from the United Kingdom," MPRA Paper 93045, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Qunyong Wang & Zhongwu Li & Xueliang Feng, 2019. "Does the Happiness of Contemporary Women in China Depend on Their Husbands’ Achievements?," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 710-728, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Motherhood Dilemma; Gender; Well-being; Happiness; Satisfaction with Life; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:18:y:2023:i:6:d:10.1007_s11482-023-10226-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.