Family Structure Essay

To day the young children of age five are more likely to end up in foreign universities with their perfect English because of their improved education due to one-child policy. They are called ‘little emperors’ in the Chinese household today. The family structure is kind of 1-2-4 formula. – one child, two parents and four grand parents. Another common expression is ‘six packets, one month’ indicating parents and two grand parents relying on the one and the only child. Socio economic development had brought about radical changes in family size and structure in China. The 4th census 1 family has 3. 97 persons on an average calculated on the 10 % sample data. .† Instead of large families consisting of several generations and many members, small families has now become a principal family type in China. According to the analysis of the sample data from the 4th Census, the family size is mainly decided by the fertility level in particular regions, and it also depends on the economic development† . The fifth census has brought about three changes in the family structures. â€Å"First, relatively stable family types represented by those consisting of lineal family members of three generations. Three-generation lineal families in cities are maintained owing to loose inner management while in rural areas such maintenance arises from a larger proportion of the only son. Second, family types apparently on the rise. The one-child-policy implemented for over two decades is the major impetus for evident growth of the nuclear family type composed of the husband and the wife. Generation-skipping lineal families have grown at the highest rate. Such families not only signify an important phenomenon in a transitional period of the Chinese society, but also reflect deficiencies of China’s social development. The number of one-person families is also on the rise. Major factors accounting for such a phenomenon are late marriage of young people, longer life expectancy of the elderly and increasing ratio of aged widows and widowers. Third, family types showing a declining trend. The number of incomplete nuclear families obviously decreases while that of standard nuclear families also falls slightly. Decline of the latter mainly results from increase of nuclear families composed of the husband and the wife, or different adjustments inside nuclear families. In the future, the structure of Chinese families will generally maintain such a situation and there will be other changes in some family types. Simplified structure and shrinking size of current families lead to changes in family function and relationships among family members, which will ultimately impose some impacts on the whole society† . Study using national data from the 1996 Life History and Social Change in Contemporary China survey (N= 3,087) to assess the effect of the economic transition on parent-adult child coresidence in urban China says that â€Å"Previous studies find that, thanks to state actions, traditional patterns in coresidence persisted in post-Mao urban China. This study still finds high levels of coresidence. China’s aging population, coupled with an underdeveloped social security system, means that the traditional role of family will remain strong. It also uncovers three new patterns, however, best explained as caused by changes in the economic realm. First, the coresidence pattern changes over parents’ life course, shifting from child-centered to parent-centred as parents age. Second, class differentials begin to emerge, most notably seen in the unique patterns of the entrepreneurial class. Last, gender differentials remain significant, but the tilt toward sons has strengthened. † Conclusion From the foregoing discussion we can conclude that China is at the cross roads and it is difficult to predict that if it abandons one-child policy, the problem of aging population and looming labour shortage could be solved. The socio-economic developments has been motivating people to resort to limited families and even without such a mandatory policy of one-child, the same trend will continue. Population is not likely to proliferate and the only solution possible is encouraging floating migration for making good the ensuing labour shortage and implementation of pension for old age people which the Government should come forward to grant for all the sacrifices that this segment of the population have made during the last several decades towards achieving the country’s goals.