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Mothers’ Subjective Well-Being after Having a Second Child in Current China: A Case Study of Xi’an City

The introduction of the two-child family planning policy in China calls for a study of the response of mothers’ subjective well-being after the birth of a second child. Generally focusing on Western countries, previous studies suggested that a series of factors could influence the response, but insu...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Liu, Jianghua, Zhou, Zhongliang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6843609/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31658744
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203823
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author Liu, Jianghua
Zhou, Zhongliang
author_facet Liu, Jianghua
Zhou, Zhongliang
author_sort Liu, Jianghua
collection PubMed
description The introduction of the two-child family planning policy in China calls for a study of the response of mothers’ subjective well-being after the birth of a second child. Generally focusing on Western countries, previous studies suggested that a series of factors could influence the response, but insufficient attention has been paid to the relative importance of these factors so far. Based on survey data from mothers of two children in the Xi’an metropolitan area, Shaanxi Province, China, our study indicates that the important factors associated with mothers’ life satisfaction after having a second child were, in general, common to Western countries and China. There were also two factors somewhat unique to China: positive adjustment (i.e., becoming happier) by firstborn children (average age, 6 years old) following a sibling’s birth, predicted enhanced life satisfaction for mothers; additionally, mothers who had both a son and a daughter reported the highest increase in life satisfaction, while mothers who had two sons reported the lowest increase. Socioenvironmental constraints (i.e., parenting pressure and work–family conflict) had a larger association with mothers’ life satisfaction than individual ideational factors (e.g., family orientation and fertility desire). These findings suggest that fertility-friendly policies and convenient family intervention institutions are needed to alleviate potential undesirable consequences and improve maternal life quality following a second childbirth so that the two-child policy can be a success.
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spelling pubmed-68436092019-11-25 Mothers’ Subjective Well-Being after Having a Second Child in Current China: A Case Study of Xi’an City Liu, Jianghua Zhou, Zhongliang Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The introduction of the two-child family planning policy in China calls for a study of the response of mothers’ subjective well-being after the birth of a second child. Generally focusing on Western countries, previous studies suggested that a series of factors could influence the response, but insufficient attention has been paid to the relative importance of these factors so far. Based on survey data from mothers of two children in the Xi’an metropolitan area, Shaanxi Province, China, our study indicates that the important factors associated with mothers’ life satisfaction after having a second child were, in general, common to Western countries and China. There were also two factors somewhat unique to China: positive adjustment (i.e., becoming happier) by firstborn children (average age, 6 years old) following a sibling’s birth, predicted enhanced life satisfaction for mothers; additionally, mothers who had both a son and a daughter reported the highest increase in life satisfaction, while mothers who had two sons reported the lowest increase. Socioenvironmental constraints (i.e., parenting pressure and work–family conflict) had a larger association with mothers’ life satisfaction than individual ideational factors (e.g., family orientation and fertility desire). These findings suggest that fertility-friendly policies and convenient family intervention institutions are needed to alleviate potential undesirable consequences and improve maternal life quality following a second childbirth so that the two-child policy can be a success. MDPI 2019-10-10 2019-10 /pmc/articles/PMC6843609/ /pubmed/31658744 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203823 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Liu, Jianghua
Zhou, Zhongliang
Mothers’ Subjective Well-Being after Having a Second Child in Current China: A Case Study of Xi’an City
title Mothers’ Subjective Well-Being after Having a Second Child in Current China: A Case Study of Xi’an City
title_full Mothers’ Subjective Well-Being after Having a Second Child in Current China: A Case Study of Xi’an City
title_fullStr Mothers’ Subjective Well-Being after Having a Second Child in Current China: A Case Study of Xi’an City
title_full_unstemmed Mothers’ Subjective Well-Being after Having a Second Child in Current China: A Case Study of Xi’an City
title_short Mothers’ Subjective Well-Being after Having a Second Child in Current China: A Case Study of Xi’an City
title_sort mothers’ subjective well-being after having a second child in current china: a case study of xi’an city
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6843609/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31658744
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203823
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