Annual Review of Sociology· 2015Q1· Review
Marriage and Family in East Asia: Continuity and Change
- 750citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2015year
Short summary
Marriage and fertility rates in East Asia have declined more sharply than in the West, yet many other family structures remain unchanged, suggesting a tension between rapid socioeconomic shifts and persistent traditional family expectations.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- East Asian marriage and fertility rates are declining faster than in the West.
- Many traditional family structures and expectations in East Asia remain largely unchanged.
- The research highlights a tension between rapid socioeconomic change and slower shifts in family norms.
- This tension may be contributing to growing socioeconomic differences in family formation patterns.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
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.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Annual Review of Sociology, 2015 · DOI ↗
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Field: Gender Studies
Gender StudiesSocial Sciences