When China’s Only Children Become Parents: Gender, Family, and Parenting in Urban Singletons in Post-Reform China.

Political polarization among the public has become a major concern in many societies. The process of polarization has strengthened partisan identities and increased the amount of prejudice and anger directed against members of opposing groups. The increased hostility could cause particularly serious difficulties when couple partners differ greatly in terms of their political attitudes, behaviors, and identities. Unfortunately, few academic studies have investigated the prevalence, factors, and consequences of within-couple political disagreements. In particular, the relationship between within-couple political disagreements and marital quality has not been thoroughly investigated. It remains unclear why some families are more vulnerable to these conflicts than others in times of political polarization. Hong Kong provides an interesting and important case study for the investigation of the relationship between political polarization and marital relations. Public opinion polls have an increasing polarization towards a wide range of political issues. Citizens with different political orientations have developed a strong sense of antagonism and hatred toward members of out-groups. Given that political polarization has become a major issue in many societies nowadays, how do married couples with different political orientations maintain their marriage and interact with each other in a highly polarized political context is an important question that remains inadequately addressed in the literature. The main purpose of the proposed study is to investigate in detail the relationship between within-couple political disagreements and marital quality. The proposed study aims at answering five related research questions: 1) How are differences in political attitudes and values, behaviors, and partisan identities associated with different dimensions of marital quality? 2) How does the strength of association between political disagreements and marital quality compare with the a

A Stranger/Helper at Home: An Integrated Framework on Hiring Domestic Help and Family Relations in Hong Kong

Academic research and social media suggest that parent-adult child co-residence is a growing trend in both Western and Chinese societies. This trend differs from the general perception of the spread of individualism accompanying economic development and modernisation. Less is known about who co-resides with their parents and why.   This study aims to examine how and why the co-residence of young adults (aged 21-35) with their parents has changed over the past 25 years in three societies with different family cultures: the United Kingdom (UK, Western culture), mainland China (Chinese culture) and Hong Kong (Chinese culture with a British colonial history). Drawing upon multiple waves of representative data since 1990, this study will address two main research questions: (1) how the parent–adult child co-residence changed over the past 25 years, specifically, (1.1) what are the main characteristics of co-residing adult children and their parents and (1.2) how these characteristics changed; and (2) why young adults co-resided with their parents. To answer the second question, this study will first analyse how the changes in co-residence associate with the key factors derived from three main perspectives: the perspective of cultural norms, the life course perspective and the social inequality perspective on intergenerational transfer. To examine the causal relationship between co-residence and the factors identified in the data analysis, this study will conduct a random telephone survey with vignettes in Hong Kong, a modern city that mixes Chinese and Western cultures.   This study will make four contributions. First, to the PI’s best knowledge, it will be the first study to describe the co-residence trends in the past 25 years of the societies. The potential findings will provide a better understanding of the changes in co-residence and highlight this living arrangement as an important domain of youth transition.   Second, unlike the cultural norm perspective with its emphasis on filial piety and adult child– to–parent support in co-residence, this study will present a new perspective of social inequality that addresses the intergenerational transmission of parental resources to their offspring in an effort to explain parent–adult child co-residence. Also, this study will assess the quantitative importance of the key factors in determining co-residence.   Third, this study will identify the causal relationships between co-residence and the key contributing factors of the theoretical perspectives. Finally, the potential findings will provide policy recommendations for planning residential policies, mitigating intergenerational inequality, and supporting youth development in Hong Kong.    

Since the launch of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) initiative in 2015, the development of young Hong Kongers has been increasingly recognised in national policies on the GBA. The Hong Kong SAR government places great emphasis on encouraging young adults to engage in the GBA development. From the government’s perspective, the GBA represents a ‘golden opportunity’ for local youth’s development.   However, recent surveys revealed the absence of interest from the majority of local people. In particular, a large proportion of local youth expressed their unwillingness to either pursue careers or live in the nine mainland cities of the GBA. This sharp contrast between the government’s enthusiasm and young adults’ lack of interest will create challenges for the Hong Kong government in responding to the central government’s call to develop the GBA. Alarmingly, it may be a sign that Hong Kong will be left behind in the GBA development.   The research team believes that effective strategies for engaging youth in the GBA initiative rely on a good understanding of local young people’s genuine ideas about the GBA. Given Hong Kong’s high Internet penetration rate, this project will collect online data to examine Hong Kongers’ perceptions of the role of the GBA in youth development. Using big data analysis, the research team will investigate local people’s online discussion and opinions of the GBA and youth development.   Based on the big data analysis, the research team will synthesise several core perceptions and evaluations of the opportunities and challenges posed by the GBA for local youth development. Survey experiments will be conducted with Hong Kong youth aged 18-35 to examine how these perceived opportunities and challenges affect young people’s inclination to pursue careers in the nine mainland cities of the GBA. The respondents will be asked to indicate their desire to take up internships, seek employment and engage in entrepreneurship in the GBA under randomly assigned vignettes. The vignettes will be experimentally manipulated to address the concerns and worries and strengthen their perceptions of the opportunities available for local youth development in the GBA.   Having developed a better understanding of young people’s aspirations, ideas and concerns in relation to the GBA through big data analysis and survey experiments, the research team will prepare a concrete report on the findings and policy recommendations for helping local youth to understand and seize the opportunities and overcome the challenges presented by the GBA.