Intergenerational differences and inheritance of marriage between born “around 1975” and “after-1995” groups based on China
Abstract
Marriage is a union under socialised norms, the typical model being monogamy. It provides for the smooth development of society and a perennially active economic market. The globalised rise in late marriage and divorce rates is to some extent a reflection of life choices and attitudes towards marriage. China is a densely populated country, and after the one-child policy, most families has a pyramidal structure; in 2021, the Chinese government officially enacted the three-child policy, with the aim of stimulating and encouraging people to have more children. However, with the rapid development of the economy, modernisation and industrialisation, there are dynamic changes of individuals’ consideration. The target group for this study is parents who have experienced a change in fertility policy who born around 1975, and their children, the millennials born after 1995. Seven pairs of families were recruited to join the study through snowball sampling. The study used a qualitative approach, with volunteers first completing a demographic questionnaire; semi-structured interviews allowed participants to explore and consider in depth, and asynchronous interviews compensated for the fact that some participants were unable to have simultaneous one-to-one communication online. The researcher forms four themes: the importance of marriage, love and cruelty in marriage, opposite sex kinship and mate choice, and women in marriage. The analysis concluded that there are indeed similarities and contradictions in intergenerational perceptions of marriage, as well as differences between individuals and family units. Inheritance is mainly in the identification of marital behaviour and marital and family pressures, and differences revolve around the two generations' starting points for marriage and attitudes to non-mainstream marriage trends. However, parental influence on children is also externalised into acting styles such as reinforcement, correction, and avoidance to spousal choices due to the unique patterns of the individual internalised system.
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BibTeX
@misc{zheng2026intergenerational,
title = {{Intergenerational differences and inheritance of marriage between born “around 1975” and “after-1995” groups based on China}},
author = {Jingxi Zheng and Samuel Bennett},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/yp7ej_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/yp7ej_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Intergenerational differences and inheritance of marriage between born “around 1975” and “after-1995” groups based on China
AU - Jingxi Zheng
AU - Samuel Bennett
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/20
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/yp7ej_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/yp7ej_v1/
AB - Marriage is a union under socialised norms, the typical model being monogamy. It provides for the smooth development of society and a perennially active economic market. The globalised rise in late marriage and divorce rates is to some extent a reflection of life choices and attitudes towards marriage. China is a densely populated country, and after the one-child policy, most families has a pyramidal structure; in 2021, the Chinese government officially enacted the three-child policy, with the aim of stimulating and encouraging people to have more children. However, with the rapid development of the economy, modernisation and industrialisation, there are dynamic changes of individuals’ consideration. The target group for this study is parents who have experienced a change in fertility policy who born around 1975, and their children, the millennials born after 1995. Seven pairs of families were recruited to join the study through snowball sampling. The study used a qualitative approach, with volunteers first completing a demographic questionnaire; semi-structured interviews allowed participants to explore and consider in depth, and asynchronous interviews compensated for the fact that some participants were unable to have simultaneous one-to-one communication online. The researcher forms four themes: the importance of marriage, love and cruelty in marriage, opposite sex kinship and mate choice, and women in marriage. The analysis concluded that there are indeed similarities and contradictions in intergenerational perceptions of marriage, as well as differences between individuals and family units. Inheritance is mainly in the identification of marital behaviour and marital and family pressures, and differences revolve around the two generations' starting points for marriage and attitudes to non-mainstream marriage trends. However, parental influence on children is also externalised into acting styles such as reinforcement, correction, and avoidance to spousal choices due to the unique patterns of the individual internalised system.
ER -