Suchergebnisse

Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Part I Population, Marriage, Fertility and Household Structures -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Background for Family Transition in Southeast Asia -- 1.2 Explaining Global Family Changes -- 1.2.1 Historical Context -- 1.2.2 Kinship Patterns -- 1.2.3 Cultural Diversity -- 1.3 Changes in Southeast Asian Families -- 1.3.1 Changing Marriage Patterns -- 1.3.2 Fertility Trends -- 1.3.3 Living Arrangements -- 1.4 Socio-economic Contexts and Transformation -- 1.5 Highlights of the Trends and Patterns -- 1.5.1 Population -- 1.5.2 Socio-economic Development -- 1.5.3 Union Formation and Dissolution -- 1.5.4 Childbearing -- 1.5.5 Household Structure -- 1.5.6 Education -- 1.5.7 Youth Unemployment -- 1.5.8 Child Health -- References -- 2 Trends in Population and Socioeconomic Development in Southeast Asia -- 2.1 Population Structure of Southeast Asia -- 2.2 Population Density -- 2.3 Level of Economic Development -- 2.4 Education -- 2.5 Female Labour Force Participation -- 2.6 Gender Inequality Index (GII) -- References -- 3 Marriage -- 3.1 Singulate Mean Age at Marriage (SMAM) -- 3.2 Singlehood -- 3.3 Divorce -- 3.4 Consensual Union -- References -- 4 Fertility -- 4.1 Total Fertility Rate (TFR) -- 4.2 Mean Age at Childbearing (MAC) -- 4.3 Age-Specific Fertility Rates (ASFR) -- 4.4 Adolescent Fertility Rates -- 4.5 Childlessness -- 4.6 Ideal and Actual Fertility Rates -- References -- 5 Household Structures -- 5.1 Average Household Size in Southeast Asia, 1980-2010 -- 5.2 Household Types in Southeast Asia, 1970-2010 -- 5.2.1 Nuclear Households with Children -- 5.2.2 Number of Nuclear Households Without Children Are Rising -- 5.2.3 No Clear Trend for Extended Family Households -- 5.2.4 Decreasing Single-Parent Households -- 5.2.5 Drop in the Prevalence of Composite Households -- 5.2.6 Rising One-Person Households.

AbstractObjectiveThis study investigates the longitudinal association between paternity leave‐taking and multiple domains of young children's developmental outcomes and identifies the underlying mediating mechanisms through fathers' involvement, father–child closeness, and family dynamics.BackgroundSome Asian societies have recently initiated parental or paternity leave policies to encourage fathers' participation in childcare and raise fertility rates. However, little is known about whether and how this policy influences early childhood development in a mid‐to‐long‐term period from preschool to early primary school years.MethodsUsing two waves of data from the Singapore Longitudinal Early Development Study (SG‐LEADS), we conduct structural equation modeling to examine both the direct and indirect effects of paternity leave‐taking on children's academic and behavioral outcomes when they are 3–8 years old. Propensity score matching is adopted in sensitivity analyses, presenting that the effect of paternity leave is not due to selection.ResultsTaking 2 weeks or more of paternity leave is associated with fathers' increased involvement in childcare activities, strengthened father–child closeness, and enhanced family dynamics. Taking paternity leave has both direct and indirect effects on promoting children's academic achievements, whereas much of its impact on reducing children's behavior problems is through an indirect effect of improving family dynamics.ConclusionRelatively short paternity leave (2 weeks) could have cumulative effects on children's development from early to middle childhood, mainly through cohesive father–child and parental relationships. The study findings have policy implications for enhancing work–family reconciliation and promoting gender equality in society, especially in the Asian context.

AbstractObjectiveThis study identifies subtypes of families with varying levels of economic and relational resilience during the pandemic and evaluates the factors associated with these subtypes in Singapore.BackgroundDespite mounting evidence on the detrimental impact of the pandemic on family well‐being, we examine how resources at different levels may enhance family resilience.MethodA sample of 2818 households was extracted from two waves of the Singapore Longitudinal Early Development Study (SG‐LEADS). Latent class analysis was conducted to classify subgroups of families. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to examine the association between the subgroup membership and multilevel factors including mother's self‐efficacy, family socioeconomic status, quality of family time, mother's work‐life conflict, partner cooperation, neighborhood environment, and government and community support.ResultsWe identified six distinct groups of families: "economically and relationally fragile" (4%), "economically struggling but relationally improved" (11%), "economically struggling but relationally stable" (14%), "economically secure and relationally stable" (28%), "economically secure but relationally deteriorating" (11%) and "economically secure and relationally strengthened" (31%). Families with higher socioeconomic status tend to show economic resilience. Families with mothers exhibiting higher self‐efficacy and lower work‐life conflict, coupled with quality family time, better neighborhood, greater government and community support, are more relationally resilient.ConclusionThe study provides a nuanced picture of family dynamics under a global crisis, highlighting the multilevel resources that are correlated with family resilience.

AbstractThis paper reviews the trends and driving forces for the relatively recent growth in cross‐national marriages in East and Southeast Asia with a specific focus on the experiences of female marriage migrants from Southeast Asia. It explicates the various forms of inequality faced by the low‐income marriage migrant women including gender power dynamics within the household, socioeconomic inequalities, integration into the destination society, and intergenerational transfer of inequalities. We acknowledge that the inequality experienced by marriage migrant women results from a complex web of intersecting social‐cultural, political, and economic forces occurring in Asia in the past three decades. As a result of rising female educational attainment and the practice of marriage hypergamy in Asia, an increasing number of low socioeconomic‐status men from developed countries seek marriage partners abroad from lower‐income and less‐developed countries. Upon entering the cross‐national marriage market, many low‐income migrant women face multiple disadvantages in the host country due to inadequate socioeconomic support, language barriers, social stigma on foreign brides, and a lack of legal status. These inequalities exacerbate their initial disadvantages to perpetuate a vicious cycle of intergenerational disadvantages for their offspring. We conclude with a critique of extant literature and identify promising future research directions.

Migration occurs at earlier ages, lasts for long periods, and profoundly shapes migrants' experiences of cohabitation. We use a mixed-method approach based on the 2012 China Family Panel Studies and 127 in-depth interviews. To address potential selection bias, we estimated the treatment effects of migration based on propensity score matching. Results show that migrants, particularly rural-origin migrants with longer migration duration, are more likely to cohabit than their non-migrant counterparts. Qualitative interviews reveal the main underlying mechanisms: more liberal attitudes and less parental supervision in the receiving communities, a desire to vet potential partners in the absence of background knowledge, and economic barriers to marriage that make cohabitation an attractive buffer. Although migrants may cohabit as a sub-optimal option due to life instabilities and financial pressures, cohabitation also reflects a newly gained autonomy in their private lives, attributable to the liberal mindsets toward nonconventional family behaviors in the receiving communities.

Transnational marriages between Singaporeans and non-Singaporeans have increased significantly in the 21st century, peaking at 41% among citizen marriages in 2009. About three-quarters of these couples are Singaporean grooms marrying foreign brides originating from lower income countries in Asia. We use a new nationally representative study—Singapore Longitudinal Early Development Study (SG LEADS)—to examine gender relations between spouses with young children and their family dynamics. Results show that compared to native-born mothers, foreign-born mothers have a more traditional gender ideology, bear heavier responsibility for housework, and are less likely to take primary responsibility for financial matters in the family. Data also reveal that there are more disagreements about childrearing between spouses and a higher level of family conflicts in these cross-national families. These differences can partly be accounted for by the age gap between spouses, mother's education, family income, mother's employment status, and family composition.

The current study extends our understanding of the widely documented gender educational gap in favor of females and its contributing factors through a mixed-methods analysis of the Chinese case. We develop an analytical framework that incorporates three mechanisms—intergenerational social contract, non-cognitive skills, and cumulative (dis)advantage across the life course—to empirically assess gendered achievement patterns and their social mechanisms among Chinese adolescents. The Chinese Family Panel Studies data documented that adolescent girls have higher verbal and math achievements than boys, with the gap larger in verbal than in math scores. Three factors account for these gender gaps: (1) (grand)parents hold higher expectations for girls, monitor girls more closely, and invest in girls as much as in boys; (2) girls possess better non-cognitive skills; and (3) girls' stronger performance in earlier years gives them an edge for later achievement. The in-depth interviews contextualize these statistical patterns in profound changes in families' logic in supporting girls' education and in reconfigured gender discourses about girls' learning behavior. From the perspective of intergenerational contracts, in the context of low fertility, daughters have become cherished as long-term family members at the receiving end of intensive investment, particularly as educational competition intensifies in post-reform China. Moreover, a gender discourse, engaged by family members and teachers, about girls' superior non-cognitive skills such as compliance and self-discipline exerts a powerful influence as a self-fulfilling prophecy with regards to girls' achievement. The findings underscore the need to account for both cultural and policy contexts, and nuanced gender work at home and in school in understanding the gender-gap reversal in contemporary China.