Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media
Vol. 45, 19 April 2024
Open
Access | Article
Unraveling Fertility Intention in Highly Populated Chinese Cities: The Role of Working Time and Job Satisfaction
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
In 2015, the Chinese Central Government implemented a two-child policy, a family planning policy that encourages each couple to have two children, relaxing previous birth restrictions under the one-child policy. However, the new measures did not result in the expected wave of births. Even after the implementation of the three-child policy in 2020, China’s fertility rate is still 1.3, far below the replacement level. Since the effectiveness of pro-natalist policies such as financial incentives and parental leave in encouraging women to have more children is also questionable, the research intends to propose alternative demographic solutions to raise the total fertility rate. This paper argues for combating working overtime and raising work satisfaction to raise fertility intention for Chinese women in highly populated cities. Obtaining data from questionnaires completed by women in eight megacities in China, the study conducts Spearman Correlation on variables in the data set. Results indicate that women have a large workload each week, relatively positive work satisfaction, and a low desire to have children both currently and prospectively. Meanwhile, correlation analysis suggests a negative correlation between work time and fertility intention. Further investigation on work satisfaction suggests that job security and benefits in government-affiliated institutions influence the number of existing children greatly, while income and promotion opportunities stand out to be the most important factors in impacting both existing and planned child numbers in the significance test. Based on the findings, the study proposes to launch public awareness campaigns, create regulations to enhance equal promotion opportunities in enterprises, and tailor regional initiatives to address local fertility changes. Future studies can expand the scope to include male perspectives to provide a comprehensive understanding of fertility intention in populated cities that have stressful work environments.
Keywords
Demographic Policy, Overworking, Work Satisfaction, Fertility Intention
References
1. Peng, X. (2011). China’s demographic history and future challenges. science, 333(6042), 581-587.
2. Carbonaro, G., Leanza, E., McCann, P., & Medda, F. (2018). Demographic decline, population aging, and modern financial approaches to urban policy. International Regional Science Review, 41(2), 210-232.
3. Shen, K., Wang, F., & Cai, Y. (2020). Government policy and global fertility change: A reappraisal. Asian Population Studies, 16(2), 145-166.
4. Kearney, M. S., & Levine, P. B. (2023). The Causes and Consequences of Declining US Fertility. eds. Melissa S. Kearney and Amy Ganz Economic Policy for a More Uncertain World, Aspen Economic Strategy Group: January.
5. Jones, G. W., & Hamid, W. (2015). Singapore’s pro-natalist policies: To what extent have they worked? Low and lower fertility: Variations across developed countries, 33-61.
6. Cook, L. J., Iarskaia-Smirnova, E. R., & Kozlov, V. A. (2023). Trying to reverse demographic decline: pro-natalist and family policies in Russia, Poland and Hungary. Social Policy and Society, 22(2), 355-375.
7. Ren Guoqiang & Yao Shunyu. (2023). Effects of working hours on the health of urban and rural workers. Journal of China Institute of Labour Relations (02), 80-93. doi:CNKI:SUN:GHLJ.0.2023-02-008
8. Bosch, G. (1999). Working time: Tendencies and emerging issues. Int'l Lab. Rev., 138, 131.
9. Messenger, J. C., Lee, S., & McCann, D. (2007). Working time around the world: Trends in working hours, laws, and policies in a global comparative perspective. Routledge.
10. Hu, Y., & Zhang, Z. (2015). Skilled doctors in tertiary hospitals are already overworked in China. The Lancet Global Health, 3(12), e737.
11. Begall, K., & Mills, M. C. (2013). The influence of educational field, occupation, and occupational sex segregation on fertility in the Netherlands. European sociological review, 29(4), 720-742.
12. Ali, W. (2016). Understanding the concept of job satisfaction, measurements, theories and its significance in the recent organizational environment: A theoretical framework. Archives of Business Research, 4(1).
13. Karabchuk, T. (2020). Job Instability and Fertility Intentions of Young Adults in Europe: Does Labor Market Legislation Matter? The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 688(1), 225–245. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716220910419
14. Conner, M., & Armitage, C. J. (1998). Extending the theory of planned behavior: A review and avenues for further research. Journal of applied social psychology, 28(15), 1429-1464.
15. Luo, H., & Mao, Z. (2014). From fertility intention to fertility behaviour: An empirical study in China's Jiangsu province based on the theory of planned behaviour. Asian Population Studies, 10(2), 195-207.
16. Zhu, Wenting, and Xiumin Hong. "Are Chinese parents willing to have a second child? Investigation on the ideal and realistic fertility willingness of different income family." Early Education and Development 33.3 (2022): 375-390.
17. Owoo, N. S., & Lambon-Quayefio, M. P. (2022). Does Job Security Affect Fertility and Fertility Intentions in Ghana? Examining the Evidence. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 1-14.
18. Vasireddy, S., Berrington, A., Kuang, B., & Kulu, H. (2022). Education and fertility in Europe in the last decade: A review of the literature.
Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open Access Instruction).
- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the International Conference on Global Politics and Socio-Humanities
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-83558-359-3
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-83558-360-9
- Published Date
- 19 April 2024
- Series
- Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-7048
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-7056
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-7048/45/20230236
- Copyright
- 19 April 2024
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited