Table of Content

29 May 2011, Volume 35 Issue 3

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Intergenerational Relationship between Adult Only Child and their Parents

Song Jian, Huang Fei

2011, 35(3):  3-16. 

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Using the youth survey data collected in November 2009,we examine intergenerational relationship between only child ages 20-34 and their parents in urban China,in comparison with that of adults with siblings in same age cohort.Results show that only child is more likely to co-reside with parents and get more economic support from parents,but there is no significant difference between only child and their counterparts with siblings in providing parents with economic support and emotional contact.Employment,marital status and childbearing have important effects on intergenerational relationship by raising the probabilities of children living apart from parents,getting less help from parents,having less contact with parents and offering more economic support for their parents.Implications are discussed in the paper.

Supports for the Elderly under the Market Transition in China

Ma Zhongdong, Zhou Guowei

2011, 35(3):  17-28. 

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Modernization theory predicts loosening family ties and the gradual decline of family supports for the elderly.In a transitional economy,we argue that the rapidly growing income for adult children helps to maintain family supports for the elderly at a high level.Data from 2005 China’s 1% population survey shows that half of elderly people in towns or rural areas relied on family supports as the main source for living.The odds-ratio from Logistic regression shows that family supports were far greater for females than males and far greater for rural than for urban residents.Labor migration by a rural household member greatly enhanced the odds of family supports for the elderly in rural areas.In the cities,we found that the odds of family support were the highest in the well-developed regions along the coast.As the population is rapidly aging,more government efforts are needed to expand socialized supports for the elderly,especially to the weakest.

Comments on Recent Thoughts about China’s "Demographic Dividend Disappearance and Aging Crisis"

Hou Dongmin

2011, 35(3):  29-40. 

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By saying that "India will surpass China in demographic dividend," the Western thought has turned population problems of developing countries to "demographic dividend." This paper briefly reviews some Western studies that leads to the Western thought on the relationship between population and economy.It concludes that similar studies by Chinese scholars,which reach a conclusion that demographic dividend contributed 27% China’s economic growth,have serious flaws.While "getting old before getting rich" may be one of the characteristics of population aging in China,many unique factors make the aging effects in China much weaker than that in the West.Aging in the West has been so far accompanied by increasing unemployment problem,and whether transitional China with 200 million surplus labors will face similar problem should have caught more attention.Currently,the lagged effects of population growth of China have entered its fully demonstrated period.If China’s population policy changes to encourage population growth,it will be a big mistake.

The Eye-Catching Sixth Population Census of China:Characteristics,Explanationsand

2011, 35(3):  41-55. 

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China’s Sixth Population Census suggests that in the first ten years of the 21st century,population profile clearly exhibits different characteristics from the past.On the one hand,the growth of population size has been effectively curbed,and fertility has become even lower.Meanwhile,population age structure has been changed greatly: the proportion of those under age 15 in the total population has dropped fast,while the pace of population aging has been faster than expected.Moreover,the problem of sex ratio at birth has become even more severe,and population distribution has largely reshaped.Migration has been an important driving force of these changes.On the other hand,it is clear that China’s population profile has become more complicated than earlier years,and population size,quality,structure and distribution are interrelated,intertwined and interdependent.These present challenges to the government in terms of how to reformulate public policies to solve population-related issues currently and in the future.This forum invites Xuejun Yu from National Population and Family Planning Commission of P.R.China,Xin Yuan from Nankai University,and Rongqing Huang from the Institute of Population Studies,Capital University of Economics and Business,to discuss aforementioned important issues from various perspectives utilizing the latest population census data.They examine the trajectory of population change with a particular focus on population size,structure,and distribution,as well as future population policy.

Exploration and Development——the Evolution of CPC Leaders’ Thinking on Population Issues

Zhai Zhenwu, Zhang Xianling, Jiang Mei, Yang Fan

2011, 35(3):  56-63. 

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This article reviews the evolution of CPC leaders’ thinking on population issues during the Period of New Democratic Revolution and Socialist Construction.People are the subjects of social activities,and hence population theory is an essential part of the Marxist Theory.It has been a great concern of the CPC to apply Marxists’ population theory to investigate China’s population issues and explore the approaches of population development in the process of carrying out socialist revolution and constructions.In the early years of the CPC,its leaders criticized the viewpoint of "the overcrowding problem",which ensured the right direction of revolution.After the success of the revolution,the CPC has correctly recognized the law of population development,creatively put forward the notion of family planning,population control and accommodating population reproduction to material production.This has not only created a favorable population circumstance for the construction of socialism,but also made important contributions to the enrichment and development of Marxist population theory.

Labor Migrants’ Working and Living Environments and the Related Health Impacts——Evidences from Shenzhen

2011, 35(3):  64-75. 

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China has observed rapid population migration and de facto urbanization during the past three decades,and this has brought about great challenges to the environment and population health for big cities.For the reasons including institutional arrangement and labor market segregation,the environment and health risks encountered by labor migrants are most serious.Employing retrospective data on labor migrants’ life experiences,health,living and working conditions collected from a sample survey in Shenzhen,this study examined the major environmental impacts on current labor migrants’ health.It is found that the environmental factors have salient detrimental effects on labor migrants’ physical and psychological health.It is imperative to improve the labor migrants’ living and working conditions,in addition to enhancing their health behaviors and social support.

The City Adaptation of New-generation Migrant Workers:Analysis of Individual Factors and Institutional Factors——Based on the Empirical Research of Zhongshan

Zheng Zizhen, Liu Feng-zhi, Ma Kai

2011, 35(3):  76-83. 

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Domestic and foreign scholars have recently discussed the marginalization among young migrant workers in cities mostly from the perspective of institutional constraints.This paper,by adopting both quantitative and qualitative methods,analyzes city adaptation among young migrant workers.It is found that individual factors have an important effect on adaptation.Such finding suggests that in order for young migrants to avoid being marginalized,they should get rid of the psychological stereotype of members of "socially vulnerable group," to improve their human capital accumulation and to actively involve in the city life.

Suicide among the Elderly People in Urban China

Jing Jun, Zhang Jie, Wu Xueya

2011, 35(3):  84-96. 

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This paper examines the problem of elder suicide in the context of societal aging and social change.Statistics in China show that more elderly people killed themselves in the years after 2000 than in the previous decade.Existing research shows that prolonged illness and family conflicts are the two leading causes of elder suicide in China as a whole.The present paper’s central argument is that the gap between elderly people’s expectation and the reality they face in their lives could ease or intensify the two leading causes of elder suicide in urban China especially,and therefore an analysis of relative deprivation is much needed.To this end,the lack of medical insurance and the factor of urban expansion will be discussed with reference to elder suicides in Chinese cities.

The Comparison of Two Decomposition Methods on Life Expectancy Differences

Peng Fei, Feng Ting

2011, 35(3):  97-105. 

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Life expectancy is a comprehensive measurement of mortality,which essentially has a close and interactive relationship with mortality by age.The decomposition of life expectancy difference is a useful tool to study the regular pattern in changes of death mode.Pollard and Arriaga proposed two decomposition methods to explain life expectancy differences.This paper will introduce these two methods and apply them to China’s Life Table of 1990 and 2008.In addition,we compare the characteristics of the two decomposition methods,and provide recommendations for their applications.

Research on Several Issues of the Special Assistance System for Families Practicing Family Planning

Zhou Meilin, Zhang Yuzhi

2011, 35(3):  106-112. 

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 This paper analyzes the background,positioning and standards of the establishment of the Special Assistance System for Families Practicing Family Planning,and its relationship to other relevant social security systems,including the Minimum Subsistence Guarantee System for rural and urban residents,and Social Preference and Compensation System.It argues that the Special Assistance System for Families Practicing Family Planning and related social security systems should overlap and be kept in rational balance,and that a dynamic adjustment mechanism should be established in reference to other relevant social security systems.It also discusses the positive social effect,existed problems and its coping suggestions associated with the Special Assistance System.