Whose Kin Ties, Whose Housework? Exchange Directionality, Intergenerational Networks, and Housework in China

• In Event: Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3: Caregiving and Support Exchanges Across the Life Course

Abstract

Despite growing interest in relational approaches to housework, the role of intergenerational family ties in shaping domestic labor allocation has received limited systematic attention. This study examines how two structural dimensions of intergenerational tie — directionality (net giver versus receiver orientation) and reciprocity, are associated with the division of housework between Chinese spouses. Using 2018 China Family Panel Studies data on 1,493 married couples and actor–partner interdependence models (APIMs), I find that intergenerational tie shapes housework in gender-asymmetric ways that are not reducible to individual time budgets or bargaining resources. Moreover, for instrumental support, the husband’s net giving orientation significantly predicts the wife’s housework but not vice versa. A significant Actor × Partner directionality interaction reveals that when both spouses simultaneously occupy net giver positions, the husband’s housework amplifies through domestic displacement, disrupting the patrilineal default when the wife's kin work capacity is absorbed by her own filial obligations. Economic and instrumental support operate through distinct mechanisms, consistent with the different normative meanings of financial versus care exchange. These findings demonstrate that the kin work obligations of patrilineal family organization cross the spousal boundary systematically, generating domestic consequences that individual-level models of housework allocation miss.

Author

• Shuangshuang Yang, Boston College