The Influence Of Family Structure On Labor Force Participation From The Perspective Of Gender Differences

China’s economy has maintained a high level of growth in recent decades,but the labor force participation(referred to as LFP)has shown an opposite trend.Analysis of LFP remains a persistent theme due to its significance to China’s current population quality,industrial structure,and economic growth.China’s migrant population flow,the largest in world history,has led to substantial research on the LFP of this special group.With the influx and integration of a large number of migrant population into the city,they are living,settling down and getting employment in the destination and becoming a member of the urban labor force.The LFP of them is of great importance to their foothold in the city and their sense of urban integration.It is also the key to weaken the contradiction between urban-rural dual structure and ensure the long-term stability of the society in China.Using data from the Rural-Urban Migration Survey in China in 2017,Logistic models were established to explore how the LFP of China’s migrant population varies by objective childcare burden,subjective gender role attitudes,children migration and help from elders and compare gender differences.The paper provides reference value for solving the problem of childcare burden and family role division of labor,and provides countermeasures and suggestions for finding the balance between child-bearing and labor employment.The results show that the number of children,the age of children and the accompanying migration of children have different influences on the LFP of migrant population,while the gender role attitude can change the influence of the childcare burden on LFP.More importantly,the help from the elders can change the LFP of them to some extent.In terms of gender differences:(1)The burden of childcare has a significant negative impact on female LFP,while the negative impact on male LFP is not significant.The heavier the childcare burden,such as the number of children in the family,the younger children(especially raising young children under the age of 3 or under the age of 6),has significant negative impact on female LFP.But for male with children under the age of 3,their LFP increases rather than decreases.(2)The migration of children to the city reduces the LFP of migrant population in the city,while the gender difference in the impact of childcare burden on LFP is not obvious.(3)Gender role attitude effect shows a completely opposite trend between male and female.Among those who agree that women should stay at home to take care of children and the family after getting married(family-oriented attitude),male participate in the labor more,whereas female participate in the labor less,compared with those who disagree with this attitude.For the female disagreeing with this attitude,the number and age of children are significantly negatively correlated with their LFP.(4)The impact of gender role attitude on LFP is different among the groups with the help of elders,and there is an obvious gender difference.For male,under different conditions of elder help,family-oriented attitude has opposite effects on their LFP which is different for female.Therefore,family policy support can effectively improve the LFP of migrant population in city.For example,comprehensive public policies such as improving urban childcare system,reducing family parenting tax,increasing inter-generational financial subsidies,lowering the threshold of household registration and improving urban insurance plan can all be implemented.What’s more,male are encouraged to take more family responsibilities in marriage and equal gender role attitude is conducive to easing the negative effects of childcare burden,and help female to find a balance between child-rearing and employment.The findings help us understand more about families’ labor force supply decisions and have policy implications for related research on China’s inter-migrant populations and international migration.Studying the effects of children’s and older adults’ migration on LFP offers a replicable standard to measure future research on multi-generational families.