Educational assortative marriage in China

Abstract

Since the Reform and Opening up policy enacted in 1978, not only Chinas economy rapidly developed and changed, but also its society has gone through radical changes. Surely, family, which is known as the cell of society, has changed a lot. The pattern of marriage that leads to a birth of new family can show one of the aspects of the social change. Traditionally, under the strong influence of Confucianism, most cases of marriage in China were arranged by parents. As a result, marriage had been the bond between two families with similar social-economic conditions, rather than the bond between individuals conditions. However, in modern society, the critical influence of family background decreased, and the importance of the individuals condition increased due to the mass education, urbanization and the development of technology. There have been studies about the educational assortative marriage in China from 1970 to 2000. There is not any study about the educational assortative marriage after 2000 yet. This paper examines the trend of assortative marriage in China in recent years by using CGSS data of 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2010, and look for the reasons why such trend occurs. Results show that educational assortative marriage has been the mainstream of marriage pattern since 1930s. For the marriage cohort from 1929 to 1979, assortative marriage is significant in the lower level of education, such as elementary school and middle school. However, for the marriage cohort since 1980, it is more significant in the higher level of education, especially in the education level of college and above. Overall, younger people are more likely to marry person with same education level. People with higher education are more likely to marry person with same education level. The development of education in China, the higher degree of gender equality in education, and the change of traditional perception are discussed to explain the trend of educational assortative marriage.