Money or Heart? Evaluating “Good” Parenting for Adult Children with Survey Experiment Design in Contemporary China

• In Event: Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: Adult Children and Their Parents

Abstract

Scholarship and public discussion about “good” parenting often focus on parenting minor children, assuming parental obligations recede at legal adulthood. In contemporary China, however, parenting routinely extends into children’s adult years. We examine normative definitions of “good” parenting for adult children using a factorial survey experiment in China’s four first tier cities. Vignettes varied parental financial transfers, instrumental assistance (e.g., housing help, practical care), and emotional support, as well as the adult child’s gender. Respondents rated parental adequacy on standardized scales. Results show that “good” parenting is multidimensional: financial, instrumental, and emotional support each independently raise evaluations. However, emotional support has been given high weight in evaluating good parenting by young adults. Parenting ideals are also gendered. When the adult child is a daughter, respondents place greater value on developmental and emotional support that fosters autonomy and well being. When the child is a son, higher approval is tied to marriage linked financial transfers, housing assistance, and instrumental care. Thus, evaluative standards selectively modernize: daughters are increasingly assessed through an individualistic lens (“de familized”), while sons remain “re familized,” keeping parental responsibility salient into men’s adulthood. Finally, social class also shift ideal parents. Low SES respondents are less likely to regard resource intensive support as necessary for adequate parenting, consistent with moral self preservation under structural constraints.

Authors

• Yuying Tong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Tianrong Tang, Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Yiqing Gan, Renmin University of China