Gender Ideology Meets Child-Rearing Motivation: Links to Fertility Ideals in China

Xiaoxian Qiu , The Australian National University
Natalie Nitsche, Australian National University

Fertility intentions, desires, and ideals are key predictors of fertility behaviour. In China's low-fertility context, fertility ideation is crucial for forecasting future trends. While European studies suggest gender egalitarians have lower fertility intentions, China's patriarchal traditions historically tied non-egalitarian ideologies to child-rearing motivations centred on lineage and family security. Yet younger generations are shifting toward egalitarian views. It remains uncertain whether egalitarianism in China relates to lower fertility ideation, and whether child-rearing motivations mediate this link. Using China Family Panel Studies data from 2010 to 2020, we apply latent class analysis to examine associations between multidimensional gender ideology classes, child-rearing motivation patterns, and fertility ideals and intentions. We identify distinct gender ideology groups including egalitarian essentialism, familial essentialism, and core traditionalists and explore how these intersect with instrumental, emotional, identity, and lineage motivations for childbearing. Preliminary results show egalitarians desire fewer children and less often endorse traditional or economic motivations, though internal heterogeneity exists within egalitarian groups. Traditionalist classes consistently report higher fertility ideals. Child-rearing motivations mediate fertility ideals within gender ideology groups, particularly among egalitarians, with family security motivations positively associated with higher ideals and emotional value motivations negatively associated in some classes. All-Round Child-Endorsing Traditionalists have the highest predicted ideals while Emotion and Identity Driven Egalitarians have the lowest, with convergence observed between all-round endorsing groups.

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 Presented in Session P2. Families, Fertility, and the Life Course 2