子女需求对城市家庭居住方式的影响

本文使用中国家庭动态跟踪调查2010年初访数据，着重分析了子女需求对城市家庭居住方式的影响。研究发现，子女需求是导致年轻夫妇与父母同住的重要原因，这种需求一方面表现在经济上，尤其是在住房上对父母的依赖；另一方面表现在需要父母分担家务和帮助照料小孩。所以，除了父母的养老需求，子女需求对城市家庭居住选择的影响也同样不容忽视。在现代化和人口流动的背景下，虽然城市家庭有核心化的趋势，但由于当代中国城市家庭依然发挥着不可替代的重要功能，大家庭在未来依然有继续存在的必要性。

The Influence of Children’s Needs on Intergenerational Coresidence

Intergenerational coresidence of parents and married children is one of the most distinctive characteristics of traditional Chinese families. Whether this traditional living arrangement will change in the process of modernization has stimulated widespread interest of the academia. According to the classic modernization theory, modernization will push family taking up the modern family mode of the nuclear structure. However, many studies have found that, even in the most modernized urban areas in China, extended families still account for a large proportion, which significantly challenges the classic modernization theory. The existing literature suggests that the particular Chinese Confucian culture and the urgent needs of the support to elderly parents are the two primary reasons for the prevalence of extended families in urban China. Based on the data of the first wave of Chinese Family Panel Study in 2010, this paper finds that in addition to parents’ needs for eldercare, children’s needs are particularly important for coresidence. Young couples need to rely on their parents for monetary support, especially for housing; additionally, they need their parents to help with housework and childcare. This paper also finds that education expansion and population migration have undermined the foundation of Chinese extended family system. However, because of the strong needs from both parents and children, extended family still plays an irreplaceable role in contemporary urban China. Therefore, it is necessary for the extended family to survive in the near future.