The Impact of Two-Child Policy on Early Education and Development in China

China has been the world’s most populous country for a long time. The Chinese government embarked on family planning initiatives to address the concerns about the capacity of existing resources raised by the ballooning population. It officially introduced its iconic one-child policy at the national level in 1979, under which most Chinese couples were permitted to have only one child. For over 30 years, the one-child family has been the dominant type of family structure in China. The country has the highest number and percentage of only children in the world. As a result, the development and education of only children have received unprecedented attention. However, after the three-decade implementation of the one-child policy, China has been challenged by a rapidly declining fertility rate, aging population, and shrinking workforce since the turn of this millennium. And the population growth rate has dropped to the lowest level since 1949. To cope with these challenges, the Chinese government abandoned the one-child policy in November 2013 and allowed couples to have a second child if either spouse is an only child (“selective two-child” policy). Furthermore, since 2016, all Chinese couples have been permitted to have up to two children (“universal two-child” policy). Unfortunately, the two-child policy was short-lived and replaced immediately by the new three-child policy in 2021. It seems that the Chinese government had to continuously make sharp turns to boost fertility in the short term.

Although short-lived, the universal two-child policy has profoundly impacted all fronts of Chinese society, including its demographic, health, social, and educational development (Zeng & Hesketh, 2016). Among all the developments, early childhood education (ECE) has become the first to be impacted; thus, it has encountered some new challenges and opportunities. For instance, the ECE industry in China has been mired in the “3A” problems for decades: accessibility, affordability, and accountability. The accessibility problem reveals a severe conflict between supply and demand of ECE; the affordability problem reflects the high cost of ECE; and the accountability problem refers to the low quality and poor monitoring of ECE (Li, Yang, & Chen, 20162016). It was estimated that China’s universal two-child policy has contributed to 5.4 million extra births to families who already had one child between July 2016 and December 2017 (Li et al., 2019). In recent years, second-child births accounted for about half of all newborns, up from around a third in 2013 (Xinhua, 2021). The increase in second-child births has posed new pressures on the ECE system and further exaggerated the “3A” problems. In particular, the additional births have asked the society to increase its supply of ECE (accessibility) while ensuring high quality (accountability) and increasing public expenditure (affordability) based on the projected child population and their needs, using an evidence-based approach. In addition, the birth of a second child has aggravated parents’ work-family conflicts, parenting stress, and financial challenges. Furthermore, first-born children need support to adjust to a new sibling, which was considered a developmental crisis for only children. Obviously, the implementation of the two-child policy has caused transformative changes to Chinese families and early childhood education in the past five years. And these changes deserve systematic and thorough studies that will summarize the lessons and indicate the future directions. This special issue of Early Education & Development is thus dedicated to exploring the impact of the two-child policy in early education and development by collecting nine studies in China.

What Lessons Can We Learn from China?

The articles in this special issue provide a comprehensive overview of the impact of China’s two-child policy on early education and development. There are three thematic sections of the set of articles. Focusing on two major microsystems, the first section presents research assessing Chinese families’ fertility desire for a second child and projecting the demand for preschool education under the universal two-child policy. The papers in the second section emphasize family dynamics and their relation to early learning and development for both only children and non-only children. Finally, the third section addresses the importance of expanding access to affordable and high-quality ECE for children from birth through age 6.

The Impact on Families and Preschools

The special issue begins with two articles that describe the changes in the immediate environment the child lives in: families and preschools. The first article included in this special issue, “Are Chinese parents willing to have a second child? Investigation on the ideal and realistic fertility willingness of different income family,” aims to unveil Chinese families’ fertility desire and barriers. Using a large data set from the capital city of China, Zhu and Hong (2021) distinguished between ideal and realistic fertility willingness for a second child among parents of preschool-age children. They found that parents’ ideal fertility willingness was more than twice as high as their realistic fertility willingness. This finding highlighted child-rearing pressure as a major cause of the discrepancy and revealed the disparity in fertility willingness among parents from different socioeconomic backgrounds. This important work provides compelling insights into the planning and implementation of future family support policies to increase fertility, especially given the country is stepping into the era of the three-child policy.

The second article, “Preschool education demand in China by 2035: A prediction analysis,” reports on the projection of preschool-age population and demand for preschool education in the next 15 years. Based on the data from China’s sixth census, Hong et al. (2021a) used the Leslie matrix to estimate the trends from 2021 to 2023 in the population of preschool-aged children and enrollments in preschools, as well as to project the demand for the number of preschool programs, teaching staff, and government expenditure. Findings from this study are conducive to evidence-based policymaking in terms of future educational resource allocation to map the supply and demand of preschool education services.

The Impact on Early Childhood Development

China’s one-child policy has given rise to widespread concern about the social-emotional learning of children who grow up as “only children” in the family (Cameron, Erkal, Gangadharan, & Meng, 2013). The introduction of the two-child policy adds to the complexity of family structure and relationships. Growing attention has been paid to examining whether the development of only children and non-only children differs and exploring the mechanism underlying the effect of the two-child policy. Two of the included articles tackle the empathy development of young children. In the third article, “Are second-born children more empathetic than only children? A study on empathy development of Chinese preschoolers,” Qian et al. (2021) directly compared the empathy development between only and second-born children. In the fourth article, “Developmental pattern, latent profiles, and family predictors of Chinese preschoolers’ sympathy,” based on a parent-report measure, Liu et al. (2021) identified four latent profiles of children who shared common features in their sympathy experience, sympathy understanding, and sympathy behavior. This study also indicated that parent-child relationships, parenting styles, and child’s singleton status predicted sympathy profile membership. These two papers extend the dialog to identify parents and siblings’ influential roles in young children’s empathy development.

The fifth article, “Parenting styles and social competence in Chinese preschoolers: A moderated mediation model of singleton and self-regulation,” focuses on the direct impacts of the two-child policy on family functioning and its indirect influences on young children’s social development. Lin et al. (2021) found that preschoolers’ self-regulation mediated the linkage between parenting styles and social competence from an ecological perspective. Furthermore, they uncovered how these relations depended on whether children were only children or not in their families. Their findings shed light on home interventions and programs to improve parents’ child-rearing practices in both one-child families and two-child families.

Two included articles conducted secondary analyses using the data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), a nationally representative survey, to characterize the early home learning environment and its relation to child outcomes. In the sixth article, “Family SES and self-regulated learning in Chinese preschoolers: A mediation analysis of parental educational expectation and home-based involvement,” Luo and Gao (2021) explored the sequential mediating role of parental educational expectation and home-based involvement in the relationship between family SES and self-regulated learning of young children. This study further revealed that the positive effect of home-based parental involvement was stronger for non-only children when compared to only children. In the seventh article, “Family environment profile in China and its relation to family structure and young children’s social competence,” using a family-centered approach, Xie et al. (2021) showed there existed significant differences between one- and multi-child families in terms of their child-rearing beliefs. Parents of only children were more likely to endorse modern child-rearing beliefs and provide a stimulating home learning environment. These papers invite readers to consider the complexity of underlying dynamics between structural and process features of the home environment and child development.

The Impact on ECE Policies

The benefits of access to high-quality ECE in promoting children’s cognitive and social-emotional skills have been well documented. Over the last decade, puhui kindergartens (PhKs) have been boosted as an innovative strategy in China to address the “3A” problems and support the nationwide universalization of ECE for children between ages 3 and 6. In the eighth article, “Effectiveness of Puhui kindergartens’ development in China: A parental evaluation,” by measuring 28,732 parents’ perceptions of PhKs, Zhou et al. (2021) has expanded upon earlier conceptualizations and comprehensively described five core components of PhKs: allocation, accessibility, assorting, administration, and all-inclusive. In addition, while confirming the effectiveness of PhKs, this study took another step forward by investigating the disparities among PhKs at different quality rating levels; thus, it advocated for targeted supports for low-quality PhKs and disadvantaged children.

Continuing the discussion of the “3A” problems of ECE, the last included article, “The accessibility, quality, and administration of childcare services for birth to 3 years under China’s universal two-child policy,” provides a vivid snapshot of infant-toddler child care services in 11 provinces. Using a mixed-method approach involving a large sample size, Hong et al. (2021b) gathered information from numerous stakeholder perspectives, including 107 city administrators, 84 child care center directors, 2,340 teachers, and 28,582 parents. Although the country has put great efforts recently into developing child care services for infants and toddlers, this study highlighted critical challenges in its availability, quality, and administration due to the 3-decade neglect. Thus, this work can serve as a springboard for advancing the national agenda to establish a robust child care system for children under age 3.

Where Shall We Go in the Future?

China’s two-child policy had been in place for the past five years before replacing it with the three-child policy last year. This special issue of Early Education & Development increases our understanding of the impact of China’s two-child policy on early education practices and policies and child development. It also provides new insights to inform policy, research, and practices as China has entered the three-child policy era. Finally, we hope these articles included in this special issue serve as a catalyst to stimulate future studies on the impact of China’s fertility policy shifts.

Linkages between ECE Expansion and Birth Rates

China’s recent low fertility rates are due more to the high costs of raising children than to family planning restrictions. To encourage fertility, the Chinese government has introduced a set of policy measures intended to support the family to have a second or a third child, including expanding affordable ECE services for children under age 3. The studies in this special issue examined families’ fertility intentions of having a second child and their demand for preschool education under the two-child policy (e.g., Hong et al., 2021a; Zhu & Hong, 2021). Future policy-oriented social science research is needed to assess the impact of ECE expansion on fertility. For example, to what extent do ECE policies influence families’ childbearing decisions? Does the ECE expansion increase birth rates? Do the effects of ECE expansion on fertility vary across families, and how? Answers to these questions and other questions on the topic will lead to identifying effective policy measures to copy with low fertility, which is unique to the socio-cultural context of Chinese families.

ECE Quality Assurance and Improvement

ECE expansion raises concerns about the quality of provision. It’s dangerous to expand access to ECE services without attention to quality. China is moving to regulate ECE quality and establish stronger accountability systems to ensure young children and their families have greater access and higher quality early learning experiences. Meanwhile, the country is making continuous efforts to improve ECE quality monitoring processes and methodologies. However, given that quality is contextually dependent (Sylva et al., 2003), there is no single universal, globally accepted definition of ECE quality. Likewise, approaches to ECE quality assurance and improvement vary across countries. Although Zhou et al. (2021) and Hong et al. (2021b) studies have investigated the quality aspect of ECE provision under the two-child policy, more studies are needed to explore local and central government’s quality initiatives, quality assurance systems, and innovative strategies in China, as well as the effectiveness of their ECE accreditation and inspection processes.

Targeted Family Support Services

Many studies included in this special issue have compared parenting practices and home environment between only- and non-only-child families, suggesting children’s singleton status was associated with parenting styles, home-based involvement, child-rearing beliefs, and parent-child relationships (e.g., Lin et al., 2021; Liu et al., 2021; Luo & Gao, 2021; Xie et al., 2021). On the one hand, the developmental trajectory of and family process for both young children with and without siblings deserves further and long-term longitudinal studies. On the other hand, family support services need to be carefully tailored to incorporate family priorities, resources, and concerns and make deeper connections to families’ values and goals for their children. Differentiated family programs and interventions are recommended for Chinese families with only children and non-only children. Additional evidence is needed to explore the types and intensity of social support for one- and multi-child families, respectively.

Taken together, the nine articles included in this special issue advance our knowledge of the impact of China’s fertility policy on early education and development and inform programmatic and policy decision-making related to the “3A” problems in ECE in China. Furthermore, these articles turn our attention toward the structural and process features of Chinese families and early learning of young children with and without siblings, providing enlightenment on meeting the growing demand of families and ensuring equitable access to quality ECE. Furthermore, at the beginning of the three-child policy era, assessing the potential effects of the two-child policy will not only add to the body of literature but will also have implications for future policy development. Thus, we expect that this special issue will contribute to moving the field forward to consider how social policies at the macrosystem level, directly and indirectly, affect young children’s early care and learning experiences and their families.

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge all authors who submitted papers for consideration in this special issue, the many researchers involved in the review process, and the thousands of Chinese families, teachers, and children that collectively participated in the studies reported throughout the issue.

Additional information

Funding

The work on this special issue was supported in part by the National Social Science Fund of China (Approval No. 17ZDA123).