Sociological method

1. C h i l d r e n ’ s
A c a d e m i c
P e r f o r m a n c e
&
I n t e r g e n e r a t i o n a l
P o w e r
I n C h i n e s e
I n t e r g e n e r a t i o n a l
C o r e s i d e n c e
X I A O H A N M A

2. WHY CHINA?
• The ideal family in Chinese tradition （Chu, Xie, & Yu, 2011）
• Intergenerational coresidence remains prevalent
– Roughly 41% of parents aged 60 and older lived with their adult children
– Living with a male adult child being strongly preferred
– Rapid population aging
– underdeveloped social security systems
– the needs of adult children in childcare and elderly parents in old-age support.
• Parental educational involvement research has been conducted in western
populations. There is scant evidence on this topic in Chinese populations (Lau et al.
2011, 2012).

3. RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
1. What are the main factors contributing to children’s
academic performance in Chinese intergenerational
coresidence?
2. How is children’s academic performance influenced by the
intergenerational power?
3. To what degree the intergenerational power influence
children’s academic performance in an intergenerational
coresidence?
4. Whether and how children’s academic performance and
intergenerational power in turn affect and modify parental
investment in Chinese intergenerational coresidence?

4. HYPOTHOSIS
Parental
Investment
Intergenerational
Power
Children’s
Academic
Performance
Hypothesized relationship among
intergenerational power, parental
investment, and children’s academic
performance

5. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
• Resource dilution theory
• Resource dilution theory argues that, under the presumption of finite parental
resources, the more siblings that a child has, the fewer parental resources that
are available to him or her. It follows that children with more siblings have
worse educational outcomes (Blake 1989).

6. METHODOLOGY
D A T A & M E T H O D
D ATA : C H I N A FA M I LY PA N E L S T U D Y
M E T H O D : Q U A N T I TAT I V E M E T H O D

7. CHINA FAMILY
PANEL STUDY
(CFPS)
• China Family Panel Studies (CFPS)
CFPS, funded by the Chinese government through
Peking University, is a nationally representative,
annual longitudinal survey of Chinese communities,
families, and individuals launched in 2010 by the
Institute of Social Science Survey (ISSS).
• Study Focus
The studies focus on the economic, as well as the
non-economic, wellbeing of the Chinese population,
with a wealth of information covering such topics as
economic activities, education outcomes, family
dynamics and relationships, migration, and health.
Key Independent Variables:
intergenerational power
parental investment
Dependent Variable:
children’s academic
performance.
Data:
CFPS 2014
CFPS 2016
CFPS 2018

8. N AT I O N A L LY
R E P R E S E N TAT I V E
S A M P L E
The 16,000 households’ sample
of CFPS is drawn from 25
provinces/cities/autonomous
regions in China excluding the
following area: Hong Kong,
Macao, Taiwan, Xinjiang,
Xizang, Qinghai, Inner
Mongolia, Ningxia, and Hainan.
(CFPS User’s Manual, pp.17)
The Sources of CFPS Samples at the Provincial Level
(CFPS User’s Manual, pp. 17)

9. • children who are
under 16 years old
will answer this child
questionnaire
• family members
who are older than
16 years old will
answer the adult
questionnaire
• one on the family
member’s basic
information and
member’s relationship
• another on the basic
information of the
whole family.
• overall interview of the
selected
villages/urban
communities
• primarily concentrates
on the infrastructure,
policy implementation,
economy, population
structure, and social
service, etc
Community
Questionnair
e
Family Roster
Questionnaire
and Family
Questionnaire
Child
Questionnaire
Adult
Questionnaire
INDIVIDUAL
QUESTIONNAIRE

10. FAMILY ROASTER
QUESTIONNAIRE (SCREENING)
Identification of Family Member (CFPS User’s Guide, pp. 28 )

11. Child
Questionnaire
(under age16)
Proxy Questionnaires
Answered by the
child’s guardian
For children aged
between 0 to 15
Self-report
For children aged
10-16 (excluded)
CHILD QUESTIONNAIRE

12. DATA
CFPS Baseline Survey Questions for Guardians of the Child (age 0-15)
Age 1-2 Age 3-5 Age 6-15
Career expectation;
education expenditure;
parenting/tutorial
courses
Factors of the child’s
future achievement;
studies at
kindergarten;
parenting/tutorial
courses
Parental care on study
and life, evaluations of
the child’s behaviors
and habits
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE:
Parental Investment
CFPS Family Expenditure Section in Family Questionnaire
Production and
business cost
Food
Expenditure
Living
expenditure
Important events Long-term living
expenditure
Cost of farming
…
Eating out
…
House rent
Transportatio
n
…
Banquets and
ceremony
Gifts to
relatives/friends
…
Education
Medical care
…

13. DEPENDENT VARIABLE:
Children’s Academic Performance
CFPS 2010 Baseline Survey Questions Answered by
Children (age 10-15) Education Section
Children not at school Children at school
Educational history, reasons
for not going to school,
level of graduation, major,
future plans, educational
expectation
(Schooling module),
educational attainment,
grades, afterhours
programs, student activities,
subjective evaluations of
study and school,
educational expectation
DATA

14. DATA evaluation of the
relations with
children by those
aged 60 or older,
intergenerational
transfers
attitudes towards
parent-child
relationships and
gender roles
Intergeneration
al Power
Family
Decision
Relations
with
Children
Traditional
Attitudes
who has the final
say about family
issues
Independent Variable

15. REFERENCE
• Shu, X., Zhu, Y., & Zhang, Z. (2013). Patriarchy, resources, and specialization: Marital
decision‐making power in urban China. Journal of Family Issues, 34, 885– 917.
• Lau, E. Y. H., Li, H., & Rao, N. (2011). Parental involvement and children’s readiness for school
in China. Educational Research, 53(1), 95–113.
• Lau, E. Y. H., Li, H., & Rao, N. (2012). Exploring parental involvement in early years education
in China: development and validation of the Chinese Early Parental Involvement Scale
(CEPIS). International Journal of Early Years Education, 20(4), 405–421.
• Blake, Judith. Family Size and Achievement. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1989.
http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft6489p0rr/
• All data presented in this PowerPoint are referenced from CFPS User’s Manual, 3rd edition

16. THANK YOU