Reproductive behaviour and determinants in a low-fertility era in China

ABSTRACT

This commentary reviews low fertility in China and suggests a macro-micro approach to analyse reproductive behaviour and determinants. As there are more discouraging factors to childbirth in concurrent Chinese society then encouraging ones, the low fertility is more likely to stay, unless there are more specific and effective strategies to support couples fulfilling their childbearing desire.

KEYWORDS:

• Reproductive behaviour
• low fertility
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Zhenzhen Zheng http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0723-7663

Notes

1 Labour participation rate of women was above 70 per cent for age group 25–45 in 2015 (Du & Jia, 2018). Although there has been a slight drop in labour participation by women since 2005, it is still high relative to many other countries.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Key Project of the National Social Science Foundation of China (15AZD080).