The Intergenerational Transmission Effect Of Fertility Desire And Fertility Behavior

“The Differential Mode of Association” is China’s basic social structure.And in this social network,the parent-child relationship is the most basic and important connection.Foreign studies have shown that there are intergenerational transmission of fertility desire and fertility behavior,but most of the relevant studies only include fertility information of one of the parent,and it still needs to further explore the specific role of the parent in the intergenerational transmission of fertility.Domestic studies focus on the generational changes of fertility and seldom use the perspective of family intergenerational transmission as an entry point to interpret the influence of parents’ fertility desire and fertility behavior on offspring’s fertility desire and fertility behavior.So this paper explores the intergenerational transmission effect of fertility desire and fertility behavior,meanwhile,finds possible approaches of intergenerational transmission of fertility from social interaction,transmission of social norm and value,and the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status.In the context of the implementation of Two-Child Policy,there is certain practical significance to explore the relationship between parents and offspring on reproduction.Based on the Fourth Wave Follow-up Survey of Chinese Family Panel Studies,the article uses OLS Model and Mlogit model to analyze the intergenerational transmission of reproduction from two dimensions of fertility desire and fertility behavior.It shows that there exists intergenerational transmission of fertility desire.Specifically speaking,the more ideal number of children parents want,the more ideal number of children offspring would like;when parents have obvious gender preference,their offspring are more likely to show preference for boy,girl or both.The intergenerational transmission of fertility desire does not have gender and urban-rural differences,while the study finds that the intergenerational transmission of the ideal number of children is stronger among the same sex,and it’s more stable than the intergenerational transmission of gender preference.Moreover,there’s a positive relationship among parents’ reproductive behavior and offspring’s reproductive behavior,which means offspring will give birth to more children when their parents have more children.Fertility policy is a significant factor of fertility behavior,and it may also weaken the intergenerational transmission of reproduction.Offspring’s age at first birth are unrelated with parents’ age at first birth,but age at first marriage is an important factor for offspring’s age at first birth.Social interaction,transmission of social norm and value,and the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status(especially the education)are important approaches for the intergenerational transmission of fertility.The above conclusions indicate that there exists intergenerational transmission of fertility.Different from researches that focus on generational changes of fertility,the paper uses data that includes fertility information of parents and offspring and studies the pattern and possible approaches of intergenerational transmission of fertility from the perspective of family intergenerational transmission.The research on the relationship of parents’ fertility desire,fertility behavior and offspring’s fertility desire,fertility behavior,especially the exploration of the relationship of parents’ fertility desire and minor offspring’s fertility desire which reveals the intergenerational transmission effect of fertility desire more directly,supplements findings of domestic studies on the intergenerational transmission of fertility and verifies the theory of intergenerational transmission of fertility.On the other hand,the intergenerational transmission effect of fertility desire and fertility behavior provide a different perspective for understanding the possible changes and trends of fertility levels in the future.