Marriage Form and Son Preference in Rural China: An Investigation in Three Counties*

Abstract Using data from two surveys in three counties among which the prevalence of uxorilocal marriage varies greatly, this paper analyzes effects of marriage form, as well as individual, family, and social factors on son preference in the context of strict birth control in rural China. It is shown that, under the Chinese patrilineal joint family system, son preference can be inferred from the reproductive behavior of couples in virilocal marriage but not from that of couples in uxorilocal marriage. However, the negative effect of uxorilocal marriage on son preference is likely to depend on other factors. For all three counties, women married after the 1990s are less likely to have preference for sons; in regions with low prevalence of uxorilocal marriages, son preference is stronger for virilocally married couples with more sisters or having first birth at older age, and for couples whose marriages were arranged by others; in regions with high prevalence of uxorilocal marriages but under-developed economies, higher educated women in uxorilocal marriages have stronger son preference. Son preference differs greatly among the three counties and increased prevalence of uxorilocal marriage may significantly weaken son preference. These findings relate to changes in rural family and marriage customs during the current demographic and social transition, and suggest new approaches to weakening son preference while maintaining low fertility in rural China.     

Women,marriage and family--traditionalism vs. modernity in Albania

"The aim of the article is to illustrate how the transition from traditionalism to modernity in Albanian society is reflected in the fields of decision-making in choosing the marriage partner, arena of choosing the marriage partner, and factors of importance for harmony in the marital relationship. We also outline the changes in women's participation in productive work, in social and policy life, and in education. The empirical material stems from a survey conducted in Albania [in] 1984. The number of respondents was 1,303. We conclude that there is a strong modernistic tendency both with regard to choosing marriage partner and factors important for harmony. The main feature of the development in Albania is the rapidity and explicitness of changes in attitudes towards marriage and family and in women's position."     

Marriage Migration Policy in South Korea: Social Investment beyond the Nation State

This article seeks to contribute to understandings of South Korea's approach to marriage migration. Situating our analysis of marriage migration policy specifically within the recent emergence of a social investment approach to welfare, we bring together two bodies of literature that due to the methodological nationalism of much welfare state scholarship are usually treated separately. Through an examination of the policy framework governing marriage migration ‐ so‐called ‘multicultural family policies’ ‐ we find that successive Korean governments have actively sought female marriage migrants to perform various social reproductive roles as a means to secure the reproductive capacity of the nation, just as feminist scholars have argued the care work of citizen‐mothers can be understood. Our analysis also suggests that marriage migration policy in Korea constitutes a distinctly transnational dimension to its overall social investment approach, which is strongly motivated by concerns to reproduce the next generation of human capital.     

Women from the Middle East and North Africa in Europe: understanding their marriage and family dynamics

The aim of this article is to assist the understanding of social workers in Europe of marriage and family dynamics among women from Middle East and North African countries who have moved to Europe. The focus of this article is on husband selection processes and family dynamics after marriage in Egypt, which is used as a case study reflecting culture and norms surrounding marriage in this region. This article reports on the findings of doctoral studies which examined marriage patterns and family dynamics in North Africa and in particular in Egypt where more in-depth data were available. The authors reflect issues surrounding values and process of marriage not only in terms of the implications for practice with social work clients or service users, but also in relation to the potential of women from this region who may join the social care workforce.     

Rethinking Families and Community: The Color,Class, and Centrality of Extended Kin Ties1

Although a focus on marriage and the nuclear family characterizes much sociological research and social commentary, this article suggests that this focus ignores the familial experiences of many Americans, particularly those on the lower end of the economic spectrum for whom extended kin are central. African Americans and Latinos/as are more involved with kin than whites, but class trumps race in this regard: African Americans, Latinos/as, and whites with fewer economic resources rely more on extended kin than do those more affluent. The emphasis on marriage and the nuclear family may actually promulgate a vision of family life that dismisses the very social resources and community ties that are critical to the survival strategies of those in need. In contrast to those who have argued that marriage is the foundation of the community or even, in that overused phrase, the “basic unit of society,” this article suggests that marriage actually detracts from social ties to broader communities just as an emphasis on marriage and the nuclear family, to the exclusion of the extended family, distorts and reduces the power and reach of social policy.     

Social and Economic Impacts of International Marriages in Europe

The effect of international marriage - a union between a country native and an immigrant - on social and family outcomes is endogenous due to the selection into marriage markets and non-random spousal choice. In this paper we use availability of cheap airline flights as region-specific instrumental variable that increased the probability of intermarriage in Europe. The two-stage least squares analysis applied to 1977–2006 IPUMS International Project Census micro data shows no significant difference in the family size or number of children between intermarried and same-nativity couples. However, it does reveal higher labor force participation rates and much lower marriage rates among mixed nationality couples.     

Gay and Bisexual Married Men's Attitudes and Experiences

Abstract

In this study, 20 gay or bisexual men's experiences of coming out to wives were explored. Specifically, their attitudes and behaviors before, during, and after marriage were examined. Findings were provided about upbringing, reasons for entering marriage, and the coming out process. Through semi-structured interviews information was obtained about the factors which led up to the revelation of homosexuality or bisexuality and about how these men experienced their relationships with their wives and family after coming out. The interviews revealed the fears which prevented these men from coming out earlier in their lives. The most common reason for entering marriage was due to social and family pressure and because of the desire to have a normal, healthy life. Attitudes toward gays and lesbians were negative before marriage and worsened following disclosure.     

The deinstitutionalization of American marriage

This article argues that marriage has undergone a process of deinstitutionalization—a weakening of the social norms that define partners' behavior—over the past few decades. Examples are presented involving the increasing number and complexity of cohabiting unions and the emergence of same‐sex marriage. Two transitions in the meaning of marriage that occurred in the United States during the 20th century have created the social context for deinstitutionalization. The first transition, noted by Ernest Burgess, was from the institutional marriage to the companionate marriage. The second transition was to the individualized marriage in which the emphasis on personal choice and self‐development expanded. Although the practical importance of marriage has declined, its symbolic significance has remained high and may even have increased. It has become a marker of prestige and personal achievement. Examples of its symbolic significance are presented. The implications for the current state of marriage and its future direction are discussed.     

Social norms, cognitive dissonance and the timing of marriage

We present a model of courtship in which the timing of marriage is affected by the cognitive dissonance between perceived norms and personal aims. We argue that as long as the family has been the main provider of social protection, marriage has been favoured by strongly felt social norms, and thus people accepted less-than-ideal partners early on in their search in order to minimise the dissonance caused by the non-adherence to the custom. Once the Welfare state has replaced the family, these norms have lost their strength, so that agents can afford the luxury of searching their preferred partners at length without feeling at odds with their social duties. The model yields predictions in line with relevant stylised facts: the raising age of marriage, the prevalence of assortative mating and the common occurrence of divorce in the early years of marriage. We finally discuss the impact of late marriages on fertility, and argue that there need not be negative consequences if the declining role of the family becomes socially accepted, and alternative arrangements are made possible and indeed encouraged by means of an appropriate family policy.     

Ethnicity,religiosity and leaving home: The structural and cultural bases of traditional family values

In this paper we explore the links between ethnicity and religiosity and the transition to adulthood by examining variation in expectations to live independently from parents before marriage. We focus both on the structure of social networks and on the values transmitted within them to discover how they are linked to family life. Our findings show that variation in premarital residential independence is linked in part to the use of a foreign language and foreignness. Residential concentration and ecological and religious institutional contexts are important factors as are the values associated with religious denomination and religiosity. These findings suggest the continuing importance of ethnicity and religiosity as critical elements shaping family norms.     

Individualism and Marriage: Ideal Types for Making Sense of the Relationship between Self and Sacrifice

The question of how the individual and group relate is one that has long interested social theorists. Changes in family form and structure in the contemporary West resituate this question in a contentious public debate regarding how the prevalence of new family forms may contribute or be deleterious to the well-being of individuals and families. Sociological discourse on marriage and the family generally tends to mirror this debate by dichotomizing individualism and commitment and self and marriage, resulting in an obfuscation of our understanding of the forms and styles in marriage. In order to clarify and advance this discussion, we show how individualism and commitment are mutually required in a modern world. We follow this by outlining a logically-derived typology that, along with a committed individualist and a group conformer, includes two intermediate types: a self-regulator and a relationship negotiator. We empirically demonstrate the utility of these types by showing how they correspond with the ways that interviewees talk about marriage in six local congregations, and we suggest various social factors that may particularly impact the development of local marriage cultures. These types provide a theoretical frame for understanding how individualism and commitment are intertwined and require each other.     

Family Formation and Close Social Ties Within Religious Congregations

The study of family and religion has yet to elaborate on the social ties that connect these two important and changing institutions. Specifically, how does family formation (i.e., marriage and childrearing) impact social ties to religious communities? Using longitudinal data from the Portraits of American Life Study (2006–2012) and fixed effects regression models that control for time‐stable heterogeneity (N = 1,314), this study tests the effects of marriage and childrearing on changes in close congregational social ties. Fixed effects estimates suggest that marriage actually decreases close social ties to religious congregations, whereas rearing children within marital unions increases them. Thus, it is children, not marriage per se, that actually integrates married couples into religious communities. These contrasting effects tend to be the strongest among young adults, but they weaken with age as well as marital duration.     

Immigration Policies and the Factors of Migration from Developing Countries to South Korea: An Empirical Analysis

This study examines the impacts of immigration policies adopted by the Korean government, vis‐a‐vis other economic, social, demographic, and political factors, on labour migration from developing countries to South Korea using a modified gravity model. The model is extended to marriage‐related migrants to gain insights on marriage migration. The positive results in three out of the five immigration policies examined affirm that liberal policies are associated with increased migration, especially for preferred groups like ethnic Koreans, marriage migrants, and professionals. The positive effects of “push” factors such as population, unemployment, and inflation are generally similar to their effects on migration to the US, Canada, Germany, and the UK despite its more rapid transition from a migrant‐sending into a migrant‐receiving country. Political terror's non‐significance may be due to South Korea's limited asylum policy. Finally, the results of the extended model imply that marriage migration share plenty of similarities with labour migration.     

青年婚恋观现状透析

当前，“80后”正值婚恋高峰期。在改革开放和多元时代下成长起来的“80后”在恋爱观、择偶观、性观念和婚姻观上有着自己独特鲜明的看法。他们直白朴素的恋爱观、多元务实的择偶观、热情与保守相交织的性观念以及“个人主义”的婚姻观，不仅直接影响着个体对未来婚姻、家庭的责任和义务的承担，而且还间接影响着整个社会的主流婚恋价值观趋势。对“80后”婚恋观现状及其原因的探讨，有利于“80后”树立起正确的婚恋观，实现婚姻家庭幸福；有利于社会稳定及和谐社会的构建：更有利于实现中华民族的伟大复兴。     

Regional Contexts and Family Formation: Evidence from the German Family Panel

Substantial regional variation in marriage and fertility patterns continues to exist in Germany. Following a multilevel approach, we exploit longitudinal data from the German Family Panel (pairfam), enhanced by an array of district-level variables, to investigate the extent to which spatial variations in men’s and women’s family formation behaviors result from differences in population composition or from ‘true’ contextual effects. Our multilevel analyses provide evidence for only small—if any—contextual effects on individuals’ family formation behaviors (except for a continuation of significant differences between East and West Germany). However, we still find indication that (1) regional economic circumstances matter in determining individuals’ fertility intentions as well as their transition to first marriage, (2) regional milieus are associated with individuals’ fertility, and that (3) selective family migration takes place. While it seems that social interaction rather than differences in local opportunity structures plays a role here, more research is needed to further substantiate this conclusion.     

TRANSITION TO DIVORCE:

This study integrates social exchange theory and the literature on stressful life events into a life-course approach to women's marital duration. We hypothesize that circumstances facilitating a successful transition into marriage have a cumulative effect, enhancing the likelihood of increased marital duration. By contrast, factors easing the transition to divorce have a negative impact on marital duration. We draw on a sample of 313 wives and mothers in an upstate New York community interviewed in 1956 and reinterviewed thirty years later. We find that structural factors (marital duration and previous marriage) and factors that increase women's options outside of marriage, such as self-esteem and returning to school, are more important than attitudinal factors in hastening the transition to divorce. Factors that ease the transition to marriage (similarity in religious beliefs and educational level) may not necessarily affects its duration.     

Social structure and personal choice

A review of representative literature in the newly developing area of alternative lifestyle research suggests an antisocial structural bias. The origin of this trend and its implications for a theoretically based social science of alternative lifestyles are explored. The aged, women, and Black families are viewed as examples where social structural conditions affect the diversity of intimacy, marriage, and family alternative lifestyles chosen. Current definitions of alternative lifestyles, individual freedom, and choice are seen as reflecting and supporting the social, political, and economic status quo in American society. It is concluded that a social science of alternative lifestyles is only possible when we more fully understand the individual, institutional, and historical dynamics determining the availability and feasibility of alternatives in intimacy, marriage, and family life.     

“80后”裸婚的深层原因探究

随着“80后”走入婚姻，相当一部分的人选择与传统婚姻完全不同的“裸婚”。他们到底为什么选择裸婚？裸婚是时代的进步还是被迫无奈？研究对“80后”进行深入的实地调查，以五位1980年后出生的被访者为个案研究对象，以开放式访谈方式收集资料。在对资料进行质性分析基础上发现：80后并非自愿选择裸婚，而是由于婚姻成本的畸高、婚姻中感情因素的上升、婚姻双方对婚后家庭生活的重视以及代际间财富流的变化等原因造成的。但是由于本次调查的五位访谈者的家庭均社会地位较低、经济力量较弱，因而本次质性调查结果推广性受到一定的影响。     

大都市单身青年“婚恋焦虑”现象调查及成因分析

当代青年出生和成长于社会改革发展时代,社会物质的极大丰富对青年一代的精神生活产生了极大冲击,种种压力和诱惑导致很多年轻人的价值观产生变化,从而衍生出多元化的婚恋观,单身青年在适婚青年中的比例日益上升。在北京、上海等现代化大都市,单身青年普遍存在着"婚恋焦虑"现象,并且呈现出低龄化趋势。总的来看,"婚恋焦虑"现象的出现背后存在着人口结构、经济条件、社会观念、交际方式、家庭压力等多重因素影响。在新的时代背景下,青年人要学会辨别是非,以一颗真诚的心来面对婚恋问题。     

Eine Mehrebenenanalyse regionaler Einflüsse auf die Familiengründung westdeutscher Frauen in den Jahren 1984 bis 1999

The role of regional influences at district level in the process of family formation is investigated for West-German women during the 1980s and 1990s. As a theoretical framework we suggest a multilevel model of sociological explanation. The empirical analysis of transition to first marriage and to the first and second child is based on micro-data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). The estimated discrete-time multilevel logit models suggest, first, that basically all regional heterogeneity in women’s fertility behavior is due to differences in the respondents’ individual characteristics — particularly marital status and age — while, secondly, there is a significant regional variation in women’s marital behavior, which cannot be explained by population composition or by structural contextual effects. Thus, regional influences on fertility decisions do not have an autonomous quality, but are merely mediated through a latent contextual effect on the risk of entering first marriage, which we attribute to regional socio-cultural milieus.