Fathering, living arrangements, and child development in China

Abstract

The impact on child development of paternal involvement in childrearing has received growing attention recently. Based on data from the 2010, 2014 and 2018 waves of the China Family Panel Studies, this study applies the propensity score matching (PSM) method to investigate the causal effects of being primarily raised by one’s father on children’s cognitive skills and psychological well-being in different family types. In migrant families, primarily fathered children are not disadvantaged compared to those primarily mothered, and boys even have better word test scores. For children living with both parents, our results indicate no significant differences in most respects between the cognitive skills and mental health of children primarily cared for by fathers and by mothers, except that children perform slightly worse in word-test scores when their fathers are their primary caregivers. However, coresidence with grandparents substantially mitigates the negative effect of primary paternal involvement in childcare on children’s language development. Our findings suggest that the role of father involvement in child development should be understood in more nuanced family contexts.

Acknowledgments

The paper was presented at the Penn-CSCC/NYUSH-CASER workshop on Migration and Child Development on 10th and 11th February 2023 hosted by the Center for the Study of Contemporary China at University of Pennsylvania and Center for Applied Social and Economic Research at NYU Shanghai, and we are very grateful to the organizers and participants who gave helpful comments. The authors thank the editor Dr. Xiaogang Wu and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable and constructive comments and suggestions.

Notes

1 See “‘Sang’ou shi yu’er’ he ‘zhashi shi yu’er’ daodi youduo kepa?” [Translation], 163.com, 3 April 2021, https://www.163.com/dy/article/G6LTMC6P05524IK0.html. Accessed 25 January 2023.

Additional information

Funding

Jia Yu’s research is supported by The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Peking University.

Notes on contributors

Wen Liu

Wen Liu is a PhD candidate at Center for Social Research of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, China. Her research interest lies in gender and family.

Jia Yu

Jia Yu ([email protected]) is an assistant professor at Center for Social Research of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, China. Her research interest lies in marriage and family, gender inequality, and social stratification in China. Her work about family and gender inequality in China has appeared in journals such as Annual Review of Sociology, Demography, Population and Development Review, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Chinese Sociological Review.