Work

Marriage and Family in East Asia: Continuity and Change

Year: 2015

Type: review

Abstract: Trends toward later and less marriage and childbearing in East Asia have been even more pronounced than in the West. At the same time, many other features of East Asian families have changed very little. We review recent research on trends in a wide range of family behaviors in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. We also draw upon a range of theoretical frameworks to argue that trends in marriage and fertility reflect tension between rapid social and economic change and limited change in family expectations and obligations. We discuss how this tension may be contributing to growing socioeconomic differences in patterns of family formation. This focus on East Asia extends research on the second demographic transition in the West by describing how rapid decline in marriage and fertility rates can occur in the absence of major changes in family attitudes or rising individualism.

Source: Annual Review of Sociology

DOI: 10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112428

Authors: James M. Raymo, Hyunjoon Park, Yu Xie, Wei-jun Jean Yeung

Institutions: University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, National University of Singapore, Asia Research Institute

Language: English

Topic: Family Dynamics and Relationships

Subfield: Demography

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: bronze