Cheng Cheng - Singapore Management University - Assistant Professor of Sociology
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Cheng Cheng's Current Research

Visit Cheng's Google Scholar Page for more publications.
Cheng, Cheng, Yang Zhou. 2021. "Wealth Accumulation by Hypogamy in Own and Parental Education in China." Journal of Marriage and Family.
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This study examines how household wealth accumulation varies by different types of hypogamy on the basis of couples’ own and parental education. Educational hypogamy (wives having more education than their husbands) is increasingly relevant in many societies, given the reversal of the gender gap in education. Prior research has studied how marital sorting on couples’ own education shapes their individual earnings trajectories. Few have examined the implications of marital sorting on parental education for family-level economic well-being. Using data from the 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies and multilevel growth curve models, this study examined how household wealth trajectories over years of marriage differ by types of hypogamy. Hypogamy in the child generation (wives having more education), hypogamy in the parent generation (wives having more parental education), and hypogamy in both generations (wives having more own and parental education) were compared to hypogamy in neither generation (wives having neither more own nor parental education). Hypogamy in either the child or the parent generation accumulated more total wealth and housing wealth than hypogamy in neither generation. Hypogamy in both generations experienced the fastest gains in total wealth. Hypogamy on the basis of couples’ own or parental education is associated with more household wealth and faster wealth accumulation over years of marriage.
Cheng, Cheng. 2019. "Women's Education, Intergenerational Coresidence, and Household Decision-Making in China." Journal of Marriage and Family 81(1): 115-132. 
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This study examines how intergenerational coresidence modifies the association between women's education and their household decision‐making power in China. Past research on how married women's education increases their decision‐making power at home has focused primarily on nuclear families. This article extends prior research by examining how this association varies by household structure. It compares women living with their husbands with those living with both their husbands and parents‐in‐law. This article used data from the China Family Panel Studies in 2010 and 2014. It employed marginal structural models to address the concern that certain characteristics selecting women of less power into coresidence with their parents‐in‐law may be endogenous to women's education. In nuclear households, women with a higher level of education have a higher probability of having the final say on household decisions. In multigenerational households, however, where women live with their parents‐in‐law, a higher level of education of women is not associated with an increase in women's decision‐making power. Coresidence with husbands' parents may undermine the effect of women's education on their household decision‐making power.
Cheng, Cheng. 2017. "Anticipated Support from Children and Later-Life Health in the United States and China." Social Science & Medicine 179: 201-209.
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​Past research has shown that anticipated support, the belief that someone will provide support if needed, benefits health. Few studies considered whether the relationship between anticipated support and health depends on the source of such support. This project addresses this gap and examines how anticipated support from children is related to older parents' health and whether such support can be replaced by anticipated support from other relatives and friends. Ordered logit and negative binomial regression models with lagged health outcomes were estimated using nationally representative data from the 2010 and 2012 Health and Retirement Study and the 2011 and 2013 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Results suggest that anticipated support from children is related to older parents’ better self-rated health and fewer depressive symptoms in both countries. In the U.S. where filial norms are relatively weak, anticipated support from others is no less important for health than anticipated support from children. However, in China where filial norms are relatively strong, parents anticipating support only from others are no different in health from those anticipating support from no one.
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