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The Chinese Single-Child Family Programme and Population Psychology1

Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and also at Beijing University, China

Following the Chinese population explosion in the early 1950s and late 1960s, the implementation of the single-child family planning programme in the 1970s caused a drastic decline in the natural growth rate of population in China. In this paper demographic data are presented to show population growth at various periods in Chinese history. The socio-psychological effects and problems encountered in the administration of the Chinese single-child family policy in recent decades are discussed. A population cycle caused by the abrupt change in population may last for 60 to 80 years until the mid-21st century. Around A.D. 2010 when there will be about equal number of children and old people in the Chinese society, a dilemma betweenparental investment and successor's investment may occur. The long-term consequence of the single-child family policy would be an aged society with more elders than children in society. A support system must therefore be designed as a mechanism to keep the Chinese three generation family system intact to care for the old. Grandparenting is suggested as a means to maintain inter-dependence in the family to cope with the dynamics of the changing inter-generation patterns. Classical Confucian ideology is considered important to maintain the traditional Chinese social institutions and ethical values.

Psychology & Developing Societies, Vol. 6, No. 1, 29-52 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/097133369400600103


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