Cheng Cheng's Current Research
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Cheng, Cheng, Yu Xie. 2023. "Towards an extended resource theory of marital power: parental education and household decision-making in rural China." European Sociological Review. Advance Online.
Existing literature on the resource theory of marital power has focused on the relative resources of spouses and overlooked the resource contributions of spouses’ extended families. We propose an extended resource theory that considers how the comparative resources of a couple’s natal families are directly associated with marital power, net of the comparative resources of the couple. Using data from the China Panel Family Studies, we examine how the relative education of a couple’s respective parents affects the wife’s decision-making power, net of the relative education of the couple. Results suggest that the higher the wife’s parental education relative to her husband’s parental education, the more likely she is to have the final say over household financial decisions. Our study underscores the importance of situating the study of marital power in the extended family context and highlights the significance of social origins and intergenerational exchanges for marital power.
Cheng, Cheng, Menghan Zhao. 2023. "Multigenerational coresidence and parental time in developmental childcare in China." Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 85: 100800.
Previous literature has examined how multigenerational coresidence changes parental time in primary childcare. However, much less is known about how coresidence may affect the amount of time parents invest in developmental childcare, which is crucial for children’s education and life chances. Using longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies 2010–2018, we examine how parental time investment in developmental childcare varies by household structure and parental and grandparental education. Results suggest that coresidence with maternal grandparents increases mothers’ time in developmental childcare among children with high-educated parents. Moreover, the positive effect of matrilocal residence on maternal time investment is greatest for children in families with high levels of education, where both parental and grandparental education levels are high. These results suggest that for highly educated families in China, matrilocal residence may be a strategic arrangement to allow parents to invest more time in their children’s education, producing multigenerational advantages through intergenerational cooperation between parents and grandparents.
Cheng, Cheng, Yang Zhou. 2022. "Wealth Accumulation by Hypogamy in Own and Parental Education in China." Journal of Marriage and Family 84(2): 570–591
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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.
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Yu, Jia, Cheng Cheng. 2022. "Property in Whose Name? Intrahousehold Bargaining over Homeownership in China." Chinese Sociological Review 54(4): 342–373.
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Previous research typically examined homeownership inequality across individuals or households, overlooking the intrahousehold allocation of homeownership. Using couple-level data of the 2016 China Family Panel Studies, our study addresses the gap by examining the bargaining over homeownership between husbands and wives in China. Descriptive results reveal a large gender gap in homeownership: only about one-quarter of couples listed the wife as an owner on the Housing Ownership Certificate, whereas about 92% listed the husband. The gender gap in ownership, however, has narrowed among couples married after 2000. Multivariate analyses show that economic autonomy, relative resources, housing purchase conditions, and modernization significantly increase wives’ homeownership, but with varying degrees among rural and urban wives. Women’s own socioeconomic status is more important for acquiring homeownership for urban wives, yet rural wives’ homeownership depends more on the resource exchange with their husbands. Given the stratifying effects of homeownership, our findings of the unequal distribution of homeownership between husbands and wives underscore how family dynamics reproduce gender inequality.
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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.
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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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