Housework Division and Second-Child Fertility Anxiety among Couples in China: The Urban and Rural Differences

This study investigated the moderating role of household registration in the relationship between housework division and second-child fertility anxiety among Chinese couples of childbearing ages. Multilevel cluster sampling was used to select 1834 respondents aged 20–45 years from Jilin Province in China between 2016 and 2017. A sample of 542 adults who were married and had only one child was included in the final analysis. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to examine the proposed hypothesis. The results showed that the association between housework division and second-child fertility anxiety was significant in rural areas. However, the above association was not significant in urban areas. Household registration status was found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between housework division and second-child fertility anxiety. Differences in gender and fertility ideology have led to different housework divisions in urban and rural areas, which in turn have led to different effects on the second-child fertility anxiety of couples of childbearing ages in these areas.