CC BY
302
УДК 316.356+314.372.23
ZHANG LIANG,
Assistant Research Professor, Institute of Sociology, SASS
DINK FAMILY: THE FASHION OF THE YOUTH? -A CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARATIVE STUDY1
This paper compares China and developed countries in people's attitudes and preferences to leading a childless life. Using statistics about lifelong childless females in multiple countries, as well as sampling data in China, the paper gives a systematic description and analysis of the trends and the characteristics of childlessness both in China and developed countries. It is found that childbea-ring is no longer a necessity of marriage, especially in Western countries. When it comes to the individual choice of childbearing, however, people generally hope to be parents, and DINK (Double Income, No Kids) therefore is only an ideal option for a small minority. The childless rate developed in a U-shaped trend in the 20th century, while the rising average ages of first marriage and first child-bearing forecasts that the trend of growing childlessness rates will continue. Currently, the proportion of lifelong childlessness among Chinese couples has always been kept at an extremely low level, and DINK families in China demonstrate no trend of gradual expansion.
Keywords: DINK attitudes, DINK behavior, late childbirth, cross-national comparison.
СЕМЬЯ DINK: МОЛОДЕЖНАЯ МОДА? -МЕЖНАЦИОНАЛЬНОЕ СРАВНИТЕЛЬНОЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ
В статье Китай сравнивается с развитыми странами в отношении установок и предпочтений людей, ведущих бездетный образ жизни. На основе статистики о пожизненно бездетных женщинах в разных странах, а также выборочных данных в Китае, в статье представлено систематическое описание и анализ тенденций и характеристик бездетности как в Китае, так и в развитых странах. Обнаружено, что рождение детей больше не является необходимостью брака, особенно в западных странах. Однако когда происходит индивидуальный выбор в вопросе рождения ребенка, люди, как правило, надеются стать родителями, а семья DINK (двойной доход, отсутствие детей) является идеальным вариантом для меньшинства. Уровень бездетности развивался в виде U-образной тенденции в XX в. В XXI в. средний возраст вступления в первый брак увеличивается, перспективы рождения первого ребенка отдаляются, отражая тенденцию роста уровня бездетности. В настоящее время доля бездетных китайских пар традиционно сохраняется на крайне низком уровне, а семьи DINK в Китае не демонстрируют тенденцию значительного распространения.
Ключевые слова: установки семей DINK, модель поведения DINK, поздние роды, межнациональное сравнение.
Being parents is a matter of significance as in the process of childrearing one gets abundant rewards both in social and individual terms, such as the delight and gratification of being parents, the perception of life and individual growth, the en-
1 The paper in Chinese was originally published in Youth Research, vol. 5, 2012.
largement of the social circle as well as the experience of extending the life line, to name just a few [1]. Nevertheless childlessness has pronounced itself as a crucial factor resulting in low birth rates in the developed countries in recent years and the decrease in population in the future. Amongst the women born in the 1950s in Western Europe, for instance, there were 10-20 % of them without any childbearing experience [2]. Childlessness, which is to the detriment of human reproduction and social extension as well as impacts the individual especially the life in the old age, has been a research subject for western scholars since the 1970s [2].
Since 1980s when the concept of DINK (Double Income No Kids) was introduced into China from the West, the preference and behavior of voluntary childlessness has gained attention of domestic scholars while the DINK inclination along with the scale and developing trend of such families have become the focuses for research. But due to the lack of professional caliber, some researchers usually give wrong interpretations to relative statistic data. For example, some people came up with an estimate that "DINK families have accounted for over half of the total families in the US" [3] from the statistic data that "the annual analysis report published in May of 1994 by the US Census Bureau shows that in 1993 there are altogether 61.8 million families in US, among which 34.8 million are families without children". Moreover, such misleading conclusion was repeatedly diffused [4]. Even some researchers mixed up the difference between DINK preference and DINK behavior, postponed childbirth/temporary childlessness and lifelong childlessness and then drew the conclusions that "Currently the large and medium-sized cities of China have seen the emergence of 600,000 DINK families of voluntary childlessness", "DINK families with married couples but no child have accounted for 12,4 % of all families in Shanghai", and "DINK husbands and wives in Guangzhou surged from 30,000 in 1986 to 100,000 in 1989" [5; 6]. In addition, as the DINK phenomenon has long been the concern in media, reports regarding the DINK preference among Chinese young people or the scale of China's DINK families are often read in various newspapers and magazines where such exclamations as "Dozens of Chinese do not want children today anymore!", "People born after 1980s would rather live without kids!" and "The DINK pattern is sprawling around in China!" Fueled by media for long, the young people in China seem to have found DINK more and more acceptable, and the DINK phenomenon appears to be on the rise. People thus shifted their worries of too many children to no child.
Did parenthood really lose its appeal to young people? Is the DINK inclination gaining more and more momentum with the development of social economy? At which level are China's DINK attitude and behavior staying compared to those of the developed countries? This paper, by comparing the childlessness preference and behavior in China and in the western developed countries, attempts to present a true visage of the childlessness phenomenon.
1. Attitude: Childbearing No Longer a "Necessity" of Marriage
For a long time, the society treats the unwillingness to be parents as a shame. It is deemed a responsibility dodge and self-indulgence to choose a childless life after
marriage. Not until one becomes a parent can he/she settle down in a social identity marked with maturity and responsibility [7]. Accordingly an individual considers that parenthood signifies adulthood rather than such other events as marriage or employment [8]. Not until 1960s did people's acceptance of childfree begin to grow and it was from then on that multiplying the earth was no longer deemed as a "necessity" of marriage.
One American panel study on intergeneration finds that in 1962, 85 % of mothers sided with the claim that "married couples should produce their offspring as long as they have the ability to" and in 1980, such proportion fell to 40% while the 1990s witnessed the maintenance of the proportion in the last decade [9]. Quite a number of attitude polls conducted in Netherlands also suggested that the proportion against childfree was dropping continuously. In 1965, there were 68 % of the people expressing their opinion against "childfree among couples". In 1970, such proportion fell to 29 %, down to 8% in 1980 and in 1995, there were only 4 % who thought the choice unacceptable [10]. As is indicated in the investigation results of America and Netherlands, the time juncture at which people's attitude toward child-free experienced a noticeable and profound change was found to be in the 1960s and the 1970s, a period when there was a sharp growth in the general acceptance of non-traditional familial behaviors such as premarital sex, cohabitation outside wedlock and childbearing outside wedlock, to name just a few.
Despite the fact that people's attitudes toward DINK have been through a substantial transition over the past several decades, there exists a prominent distinction between generations in their acceptance of childfree. Let us take the aforesaid panel study on intergeneration carried out in the US as the reference. Surveys conducted in the early 1980s on daughters of these mothers in the above study suggested that the daughters saw parenthood less as an "obligation" than their mothers did and in the following 13 years daughters who seconded such opinion kept decreasing [9]. Based on the data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) conducted in 1988 by Britain, Ireland, USA and former West Germany, it can be concluded that the elderly showed less esteem of childless marriages, and over half of the program respondents over 60 years old supported the view that "a marriage without children is incomplete" (see table 1).
Table 1. Support for the View that "A Marriage without Children is Incomplete" among Respondents born in Various Periods (Unit: %) [10]
Male (Year of Birth) Female (Year of Birth)
-1930 1930-1949 1950-1970 -1930 1930-1949 1950-1970
Britain 73 54 35 63 40 29
Ireland 55 59 45 54 48 39
USA 64 46 34 56 46 34
West Germany 54 45 24 51 40 24
The tolerance of childfree among various countries is also in great difference. According to the findings of the two international comparative researches conducted in 1992 and 2002, there was a highest degree of support among female from Britain and Sweden regarding the opinion that "marriage is not necessarily bound to children". Over 80 % of them voiced the support in both researches. By contrast, the attitudes of the women from the US were somewhat capricious regarding the same view point. The group in favor of "marriage is not necessarily bound to children" fell from 87 % in 1992 to 66 % in 2002. Compared with British and Swedish female, French and German women were more conservative, only 60 % of whom in favor of childfree life style. In contrast, more Asian women viewed the childbearing as the "necessity" of marriage. There had been fundamentally no change in the attitudes of Korean women regarding the childfree within a decade, and a steady 40 % of them were in favor of the point that child is not the necessity of marriage. Nevertheless, there was an obvious transition in Japanese women's attitudes in the meanwhile. Though they became more tolerant of DINK, the general acceptance was still lower than that of women in the Western countries (see fig. 1).
Fig. 1. An International Comparison of Female Support of the Thought "Marriage is not Necessarily
Bound to Children" (%)
Then how is the attitude of Chinese toward the DINK families? The results of the 2006 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) showed that only 25 % of the respondents supported the idea that "marriage is not necessarily bound to children". Further analysis suggested in spite of the fact that young, urban, highly educated respondents tended to hold higher acceptance of DINK families, there was only a proportion of 30 % of them endorsing DINK families even if these respondents
1 For materials in 1992, please refer to "International Comparative Survey on Issues of Female", compiled and published by Bureau of Citizens and Cultural Affairs in Tokyo, Japan in 1994. The materials in 2002 were prepared according to the Year 2003 figures presented in the "International Comparative Survey on Men and Women's Equality in Social Activities" compiled by Gender Equality Bureau, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan.
were born after 1970s (the so-called "post-70s" and "post-80s"). This indicated that compared with people in the developed Western countries, most Chinese held conservative view of childbearing and parenthood was regarded as a must in life. Even in comparison with her Asian neighbors like Japan and Korea, China appears to be the least tolerant in her favor of DINK families.
2. Preferences: DINK - An Ideal Only for the Minority
Just as is pointed out by A. Thornton and L. Young-Demarco in the four decades of trends in attitudes toward family in the US, there is a difference between the acceptance of DINK and the readiness to lead a DINK life [9]. Although childfree is no longer deemed as a shame and it has been accepted by more and more people that childbearing should be up to one's own discretion, parenthood is none the less considered an integral achievement in life. Worldwide research findings also showed that DINK is only an ideal of the minority.
In Europe, the survey data of 2005 suggested among the 15 EU nations only an average rate of 4% women aged from 15-39 expressed that their ideal number of children was 0. Among these women, those in Austria had the strongest preference of DINK, reaching 11 %, those 10 % in Luxembourg ranked the second, and Germany and Finland were both the third with 7 % of support the above 0 child ideal [11]. GSS results showed that among women falling in the age group of 18-44, only 2 % in 1966 said they would not like to have a baby and the rate rose to just 6 % in 1988 [12]. According to another US family growth survey, from 1982 to 1995, the rate of childless preference among teenage girls was kept steadily at a low level [9].
0 2 4 6 s 10 12
Fig. 2. The Proportion of Women Aged from 15 to 39 in EU Nations with a Childless Preference [13]
Then what about the DINK preference of the Chinese? Is it really like what the media said, "Dozens of Chinese do not want children any more today"? The outcome of real case investigations, however, has repudiated that. In China, DINK is also a childbearing preference among the few. As was suggested by the survey con-
ducted on childbearing-age women (n = 39 586) of the 2001 National Birth Planning and Reproductive Health Survey, among women of the age groups between 20-29 and between 30-39, those with a zero-child preference only accounted for 1,3 % and 0,8 % [14] respectively. The 2006 China General Social Survey (CGSS) had a comparable finding that the women aged 20-29 and 30-39 with a zero-child preference were 3,5 % and 1,4 % respectively. The rates among the men of the same age groups were 1,6 % and 2,4 %.
Either study conducted in the western countries or the ones in China came to the same conclusion that in spite of people's growing acceptance of diversified child-bearing options, they hoped to become parents and there was no decline in such will. The findings of the "Monitoring the Future" research which has been conducted by Survey Research Center of University of Michigan annually on senior high school students of the US since 1976 also suggested that the proportion of students in favor of childbearing as a life value stayed between 60 % and 70 % from the early 1980s to the end of 1990s [9].
3. Behavior: Distinction between Lifelong Childlessness Rate in China and Overseas
It was not until the middle and later period of 1960s did the significant transition take place in people's attitudes toward reproduction that childbearing was no longer deemed as a compulsory "obligation" for married couples. However some scholars have found in their historical research on childlessness that in Western Europe, Northern Europe, the US and Australia, childlessness behaviors have a long history [2]. As early as in the 19th century, a number of women were lifelong childless all through their lives. Data from the US and Australia showed that among women born in the middle and late period of the 19th century, the rate of those without a childbearing experience fell somewhere between 15 % and 25 % [15; 16]. In Europe, about 24 % of the Dutch women born between 1880 and 1884 and 26 % of the West German women born between 1885 and 1889 lived and died childless [2]. But due to Thanks to the comparatively high birth level rate at that time, childlessness did not stand out prominently in terms of the social impact. Until the 1970s, with the continuing low birth rate and shrinking family scales in the western countries, the impact brought forth by young people's postponed reproduction and childlessness on population growth and long-term population decline was more and more noticeable, childlessness was treated as a subject of importance in reproduction researches.
It is usually till the end of one's fertile years that we may decide if it is childlessness for a lifetime. Such point of time, generally speaking, falls between 45 and 49 to a woman [13]. Owing to the fact that reproduction research usually focuses on the childbearing behaviors of females (and so does the research on childlessness), the data of male lifelong childlessness is scarce [17]. Therefore data of childless women will be used below to describe the chronological transition and the trend features of the childlessness rates in the developed countries. Table 2 demonstrates the proportion of female who were born between 1920 and 1965 in different countries and had never given birth by the end of their fertile years.
Table 2. Proportion* of Women Born in Different Years Who Had Never Given Birth by Age 45** (%)
Year of Birth
1920- 1925- 1930- 1935- 1940- 1945- 1950- 1955 1960 1963 1964 1965
1924 1929 1934 1939 1944 1949 1954
Austria 16 14 15 15 17 15 17 18 22 21
Belgium 12a 16 14 13 13 14 15
Denmark 9 11
England & Wales 21 17 14 13 12 10 14 16 19 20 20 21
Finland 18 16 16 15 14 14 15 19 20 20
France 19 16 13 11 11 11 12 8 10
Germany (West Germany) 17 10 10 12 14 18 20
Italy 16 15 13 10 14 12 12 13 15 18 20
Greece 11 12 10 8 11 15 16 16
Netherlands 15 14 12 12 12 11 15 17 18 18 18 18
Norway 10a 9 9 9 11 14 12
Portugal 17 17 14 11 10 10 5 5 4
Spain 14a 12 11 10 9 10 12 12 13
Sweden 14 13 13 13 15 13 13 13 13 13
Australia 15 11 9 9 9 10b 13
New Zealand 13 11 9 9 9 10 12b
Canada 10a 8a 7a
America 17 14 13 10 9 11 17 16 15 15 15 14
Note: * In real statistical cases, it is commonly seen overseas to treat the childless women by their age of 45 as the lifelong childlessness;
** Unless otherwise specified, the proportion of lifelong childless women refers to the proportion of such women out of all in a country;
a. The lifelong childlessness proportion among the married women;
b. The proportion of women aged from 40 to 44 without a childbearing experience [13].
The lifelong childlessness statistics of women born in different periods in the major developed countries have manifested two important characteristics. One is that among all the women born between 1920 and 1944, there was a declining trend of the proportion of those without children. The other is that the childlessness proportion of women born after 1945 gradually went up. To put it specifically, women born in the 1920s held a comparatively high rate of childlessness. Data from England & Wales, France, Germany, Finland, Italy, Portugal and the US suggested that about 15 % to 20 % women born between 1920 and 1929 lived in a lifelong childless state. Women born later had a continuously declining rate of childlessness, with the lowest point found in women born around 1940 and many countries having the rate down to roughly 10 %. Women of this age group had a fertile period precisely before the 1980s when "Europe's second demographic transition" took place [18]. However the rate of childless women recovered in those born after 1945. In such regions as Austria, England and Wales, up to 21 % of the women born in 1965 were childless and the figure was 20 % (of all the women born in 1964) in Finland and Italy and 18 % in the Netherlands.
Quite a few scholars have conducted analysis and discussions about the reasons of change in the childlessness rate of women in the 20th century. As for the reason of the childlessness rate decline found in women born between 1920 and 1940, researchers reach a consensus that it was the continuous reduction of the "involuntary" factors leading to women's childlessness. As the social economy and medical science leveled up, possible factors resulting in women's childlessness such as malnutrition, tuberculosis, malaria and genetic factors were gradually removed [19]. On the other hand, the "marital revolution" which took place in Europe during the first half of the 20th century altered the marital mode that had been adopted since the middle and late period of the 19th century. The fact that women born between 1920s and 1940s, generally speaking, married at an earlier age and had a higher marriage rate than the women born in the earlier times reduced women's childlessness rate due to postponed marriage or single [20; 21].
As for the gradual recovery of the childlessness rate among women born after World War II, some researchers attributed it to the increase of women with childfree preference, maintaining that it was a phenomenon caused by the factors leading to low birth rates like urbanization, individualism and the pursuit of freedom [19; 22; 23]. There were still some other researchers who believed it was due to the "involuntary" factors. For instance, the rivalry and confrontation between certain factors and reproduction behaviors made women with childbearing inclination finally give it up. These competitive factors included pursuits of education, career and income and also incorporated the wishes to escape from the tedious grinds suggested by bringing up children [24].
Since the DINK concept was introduced into China from the West, the domestic researchers and the media came to the same estimate that with the economic development, the scale of China's DINK families would keep expanding till it finally reached the level of developed countries. Then how far has China's childlessness rate developed? Has the proportion of lifelong childlessness been kept in a continuously growing trend, just as that of the developed countries, for the past several decades? Unfortunately there has been so far no such data available in China and we can only procure some pieces of information through a few national sampling surveys about the chronological transition of childlessness.
The findings of the 2001 National Birth Planning and Reproductive Health Survey revealed that within the age group of 40~49 (born between 1952 and 1961, n = 10,074), the proportion of childless women was only 1,3 %. The figure, being 2,2 %, was no higher within the age group of 30~39 (born between 1962 and 1971, n = 14,716) [14]. The two China General Social Surveys (CGSS) conducted respectively in 2006 and 2008 enabled us to obtain a general knowledge of the childlessness proportions of males and females of a larger variety of age groups.
From table 3, it could be seen that the results from the national samples of both surveys were generally the same. The lifelong childlessness proportions of the surveyed people born in different periods were positioned at an extremely low level. Among the married respondents born before 1965 (including those divorced and
Table 3. The Childlessness and Married proportions of the Respondents Born in Different periods (%)
Year of Birth 2006 Year of Birth 2008
General Married General Married
1936-1944 (n = 269) 1,1 0,4 1910-1944 (n = 537) 0,9 0,6
1945-1949 (n = 289) 0,3 0,3 1945-1949 (n = 456) 1,3 0,7
1950-1954 (n = 440) 1,4 0,5 1950-1954 (n = 562) 1,2 0,5
1955-1959 (n = 286) 1,4 0,4 1955-1959 (n = 588) 1,0 0,3
1960-1964 (n = 347) 1,4 0,3 1960-1964 (n = 681) 2,5 0,9
1965-1969 (n = 396) 3,5 1,6 1965-1969 (n = 765) 2,0 1,3
widowed), the childlessness rate of both surveys was within 1 %. The rate of those married respondents born between 1965 and 1969 rose slightly but was still below 2 %. It was thus apparent that with a noticeable distinction from the western countries, China did not present the trend of a growing childlessness rate.
4. Late Childbirth: An Existing universal tide
Quite a number of people treat the rise of the childlessness among young people as the spread of the DINK phenomenon. In fact, however, the childlessness rate of a certain generation cannot be figured out till the end of the fertile years of these people. For the young generation who are still with the fertility, it is hard to decide whether childlessness is a status for the time being or for permanency. But it can be sure that as people keep putting marriage off, late childbirth has been a general and universal tide.
As is show in table 4, it is found in most countries that women over 30 years old without a childbirth experience are increasing prominently in number. Among all the women born in 1970, more than half of those in Spain, Ireland, Netherlands and Italy are childless at 30. The rate in Poland and Hungary, though slightly lower, is over 1/4 after all.
In light of young people's postponed marriage and parenthood, overseas scholars have reached a consensus that the childlessness rate of women born after 1960 will keep rising. They also predict that the childlessness rate of countries in a majority will remain high at 20 % [2]. Existing research findings show that postponed childbirth may result in unexpected effects, such as decreased fertility with the increase of age, and may finally lead to involuntary childlessness. Consistently postponed childbearing may also make the people accustomed to the DINK lifestyle unwilling to embrace a change in their life and meanwhile they are likely to make greater efforts in their pursuit of career achievements (especially the women) and eventually give up reproduction [25]. Taking German couples that got married in 1965 as the research objects, Schwarz once found that those without children in the first decade of their marriage would basically keep the DINK state on in their later life [2].
Table 4. Proportion of Women Born in Different Periods Who Were Childless
at Age 30 (%) [13]
Year of Birth
1950 1960 1970
Spain 31,8 59,6
Ireland 37,9 56,9
Netherlands 44,9 56,1
Italy 29,1 36,6 53,8
Greece 24,2 48,5
Finland 24,3 38,1 47,0
Germany (West Germany) 37,0 47,0
Sweden 36,0 44,7
Denmark 20,0 34,0 37,7
America 31,7 32,6
Norway 16,9 25,9 30,1
Slovakia 14,8 14,5 29,7
Germany (East Germany) 11,0 29,0
Poland 16,5 26,1
Hungary 14,7 13,6 25,4
Average of the 14 nations of OECD 28,3 40,5
In addition, the time at which a woman gets married will also influence her fertility. Women who get married later have a much higher childlessness rate than those who get married earlier. German studies suggested that among women born after 1945, the childless rate of those who get married after 30 was quadrupled that of those married in their twenties. Studies of other European nations and the US give the similar results [2]. The reason is that late marriage shortens the time of pregnancy and married couples know much more of contraception so they are more used to the DINK lifestyle [26].
Then in China has late childbearing become a trend as well? Compared with the elder generation, are the young people postponing their childbirth? Let us continue looking at the question with the rate of the childless people at the age of 30. Data of the 2008 CGSS showed that in rural areas the female respondents gave a very low childless rate at 30, which was only 5,8 % even among those born in 1970s. By contrast, their urban counterparts presented a comparatively higher childless rate at 30, which was 11,5 % among those born in 1970s (see table 5).
Table 5. Proportion of Women Born in Different Periods Who Were Childless at Age 30 (%)
Year of Birth
1950-1959 1960-1969 1970-1978
Cities & Towns 4,6 6,2 11,5
Rural Areas 2,8 1,2 5,8
Nationwide 3,6 3,5 8,6
Samples 615 781 651
Compared with the above OECD nations, however, China's late childbirth rate is conspicuously lower. This at least implicates that the phenomenon of late childbirth turns out to be a trend in the cities of China. But due to its low rate in traditional terms, it is safe to expect a slow growth at the moment and in the future.
5. Conclusion
Although media sends the exclamations like "People born in the 1980s do not want children any more today!", "The scale of China's DINK families keeps on increasing!" from time to time and dozens of researchers maintain that the phenomenon of DINK in China will be as prevalent as in the developed countries with the economic and social development, these estimates or arguments have not revealed a true panoramic view of the attitudes toward, preference and behaviors of childlessness in China as much as in the developed countries. The research here employs the empirical research materials to compare the childfree attitudes and preference between China and the developed countries, conducts a systematic description and analysis of the developing trend and characteristics of childlessness in China and the developed countries by referring to the statistics of women in a lifelong childless state, courtesy of a number of countries and the sampling survey data of China.
According to research findings, there is a noticeable and pervasive change in people's attitudes towards childfree and the belief of reproduction as something out of one's own selection is being accepted by more and more people. In the western countries, in particular, childbearing is no longer a necessity in life, and it is considered as one's private affairs to decide whether to have babies, when to have and how many one should have, thus making diversified reproduction inclinations a tide. In Japan and Korea, the two nations of Asia region, the social acceptance of child-free has increased but it is still no rival to western countries in measure. In comparison, China's social attitudes toward DINK are more conservative and parenthood is still deemed as an integral part of life.
In the matter of individual DINK preference, those developed countries with a diversified childbearing notion as well as China where social economy is in a rapid transition, witness people's wishes to be parents, though the diversified childbirth options are more and more accepted. The fact that only those in a minority take DINK as the ideal choice for reproduction and people's preference for parenthood gets no less intense at all.
The article, moreover, by utilizing adequate and accurate data, portrays and analyzes the chronological transition and trend features of the lifelong childlessness of women born between 1920s and the middle 1960s in Europe, Australia and the US. The outcome shows high similarity in the transition mode of the childless rates of women from different nations. Among women born between 1920 and 1945, the childless rate kept decreasing. Among the generation born after World War II, women's childless rate gradually recovered. In light of the results of several national sampling surveys, the rate of lifelong childlessness of Chinese couples born in different periods has always been kept on an extremely low level. There has not been a trend of continuous growth in China's childless rate.
Last but not the least, as for the younger generation still in their fertile years, the existing statistics suggested that late childbearing had become a worldwide trend and that the childless rates of the developed countries will keep rising. In China, the universal trend of marriage and reproduction has not changed in the younger generation. Thus it is safe to estimate that the proportion of DINK families in China will stay at a very low level for a certain period and the scope for increase, if it should, will be quite small. The article views that in China's rural areas which are influenced by the cultural traditions in the widest sense and where children continue to serve as the labor force as well as their parents' supporting guarantee in elder age, the childrearing cost being relatively low in addition, the DINK notion to people there are nothing less than impossible. Even in the cities, as the fruits of love and the relationship nexus between couples, children who bring forth psychological satisfaction and happiness enable their parents see more of life's significance and help them become more mature with a growing sense of care and responsibility. Therefore young people tend to choose to have fewer babies for the sake of eugenic birth rather than DINK. But as the society is more rational and diversified, we should also embrace with tolerance of various birth outlooks and lifestyles. Even if young couples prefer to lead a childless life, it is their choice to determine the life style. Parents and society are better not to reprimand or press them and should give them the freedom of choice instead.
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Date accepted 18.10.2015.
