A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä
Parent-offspring conflict over family size in current China
Tekijät: Jianghua Liu, Chongli Duan, Virpi Lummaa
Kustantaja: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Julkaisuvuosi: 2017
Journal: American Journal of Human Biology
Artikkelin numero: e22946
Vuosikerta: 29
Numero: 3
Sivujen määrä: 11
ISSN: 1042-0533
eISSN: 1520-6300
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.22946
Abstract
Objectives: In China, the recent replacement of the one-child policy with a twochild
policy could potentially change family ecology—parents may switch investment
from exclusively one child to two. The parent-offspring conflict theory provides
testable hypotheses concerning possible firstborn opposition toward further reproduction
of their mother, and who wins the conflict. We tested the hypotheses that if there
is any opposition, it will differ between sexes, weaken with offspring age and family
resource availability, and affect maternal reproductive decision-making.
Methods: Using survey data of 531 non-pregnant mothers of only one child from
Xi’an (China), logistic regression was used to examine effects of age, family income,
and sex on the attitudes of firstborn children toward having a sibling; ordinal regression
was used to investigate how such attitudes affect maternal intention to reproduce
again.
Results: Firstborns’ unsupportive attitude toward their mothers’ further reproduction
weakened with age and was overall more frequent in low-income families. Sons’
unsupportive tendency displayed a somewhat U-shaped relationship, whereas daughters’
weakened with family income; consequently, sons were more likely than
daughters to be unsupportive in high-income families, suggesting a tendency to be
more demanding. Forty-nine percent of mothers supported by their firstborns
intended to reproduce again, whilst only 9% of mothers not supported by firstborns
had such an intention.
Conclusion: Our study contributes to evolutionary literature on parent-offspring conflict
and its influence on female reproductive strategy in modern human societies, and
has also important implications for understanding fertility patterns and conducting
interventions in family conflict in China.