Socialization or Social Structure: Investigating Predictors of Attitudes toward Filial Responsibility among Chinese Urban Youth from One- and Multiple-Child Families

Abstract

This study explores the influence of familial and social factors on the maturing cohort of China's one-child generation students' attitudes toward filial responsibilities. Based on survey data collected in 1997 and 1998 among 777 Chinese young adults, this research found that family economic conditions had a significant impact on young adults' attitudes; higher family income was positively related to respondents' willingness toward accepting filial responsibility; higher educational levels, though positively related to respondents' attitudes toward xiao, were negatively related to their commitment to parent care when they foresaw job and care conflicts. Family socialization was not found to enhance young adults' attitudes toward filial responsibility. Sharing the same household with grandparents and having dependent grandparents in the family were negatively associated with respondents' sense of obligation for parental care. Further, only children born after the one-child policy implementation scored lower than other children in their willingness to provide parental care when they foresaw job and care conflicts. The author argues that social structure, rather than socialization, plays an increasingly important role in shaping one-child generation students' attitudes toward filial responsibility in China, and will continue to do so in the future.