Are high marriage expenses delaying age at first marriage? Evidence from Chinese rural migrant men

• Published date: 01 February 2024
• Author: Xiaoyi Jin,Jiaxuan Teng,Zhuqing Duan,Beibei Sun
• Date: 01 February 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12909

RESEARCH

Are high marriage expenses delaying age at first

marriage? Evidence from Chinese rural migrant men

Xiaoyi Jin

1

|Jiaxuan Teng

1

|Zhuqing Duan

2

|Beibei Sun

1

1

School of Public Policy and Management,

Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

2

School of Marxism, Xi’an Jiaotong

University, Xi’an, China

Correspondence

Zhuqing Duan, School of Marxism, Xi’an

Jiaotong University, 28 West Xianning Road,

Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, China.

Email: buptdzq@126.com

Funding information

Key project of the National Social Science

Foundation of China, grant number

21AGL028.

Abstract

Objective: The goal of the paper is to discover the dynamic

features of rural men’s age at first marriage, and to explore

impacts of marriage expenses on men’s age at first marriage in

rural China amid a rapid urbanization and sociodemographic

transition.

Background: Given the rapid urbanization and

sociodemographic transition, changes in rural men’s

marriage timing and its influencing mechanism in China

are emerging but remain under examined.

Method: The data were collected by the New Urbanization

and Sustainable Development research group from Xi’an

Jiaotong University in 2018 (n=1,391). Regression models

were used to explore the influence of men’s marriage

expenses and regional economic factors on their age at first

marriage.

Results: The relationship between squared total marriage

expenses of rural migrant men and their age at first mar-

riage shows as a U-shaped curve. Conjugal matching, fam-

ily, premarital migration, and regional economy play

important roles for rural men entering their first marriages.

Conclusion: Compared with the age-appropriate married

men, the early and late married men tend to have higher

marriage expenses. Men with more economic resources are

capable of seizing high-qualified women at a younger age,

whereas men with less economic resources need to pay

more for their first marriage at an older age. Fathers’

lower social class and regional economy significantly delay

men’s age at first marriage.

Author note: XJ and JT designed the study, constructed the data set, analyzed the data, and prepared the first draft of the manuscript.

ZD and BS discussed and revised the manuscript. XJ and ZD finalized the manuscript. The study was conducted according to the

guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the medical ethic committee of Health Science Center of X’ian Jiaotong

University (2021-1537; approved October 28, 2021). All participants were provided an informed consent prior to the beginning of the

survey and received a small honorarium for their time. We have no conflicts of interest to disclose. The data sets used in this study are

not available online.

Received: 12 November 2022Revised: 5 April 2023Accepted: 24 April 2023

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12909

© 2023 National Council on Family Relations.

520 Family Relations. 2024;73:520–540.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare

Implications: This study reveals marriage expense is another

important factor influencing men’s first marriage entry in

rural China and provides a clue to solve difficulties of rural

men getting married, especially in societies with ongoing

rapid urbanization and sociodemographic transition.

KEYWORDS

age at first marriage, Chinese rural men, marriage expenses, urbanization

Marriage timing has been proved to be an important factor related to a variety of social outcomes

such as fertility, education, and women’s employment in both developed and developing countries

(Rosero-Bixby, 1996). Age at first marriage, a typical indicator of marriage timing, usually reflects

a social change (Nobles & Buttenheim, 2008). Later marriage, which means delays in marriage

timing or older age at first marriage, has become the trend in most societies (Lesthaeghe &

Moors, 2000;P.Lietal.,2015). The most prominent explanations for this phenomenon include the

ideational changes, improvement of education, and increased labor force participation of women

(Malhotra, 1997; Oppenheimer, 1994).

China has a long history of early marriage and universal female marriage: Chinese women

traditionally entered marriage in their late teens and almost all were married before the age of

30. However, men married later and lifetime bachelorhood was widespread (Lee & Feng, 1999).

The trend of later marriage also appears in contemporary China. According to China’s census

data, the average age at first marriage for men increased from 23.57 years in 1990 to 25.86 years

in 2010,and theaverage agefor womenincreased from22.02 years in1990 to23.89 years in

2010. In 2017, the average age at first marriage in China rose to 26.8 years (G. Li et al., 2021).

The continued delay in the average age at first marriage indicates that Chinese society has

entered an era of late marriage, and it is higher in urban areas than in towns and villages (He &

Tan, 2021). Based on data from the 2018 wave of the China Family Panel Studies, Yu (2021)

found that although the average age at first marriage continues to rise, young people generally

express a desire to enter into marriage and value the creation of a family, which means the tra-

dition of universal marriage still exists.

Since the economic reform and opening up in 1978, China has been undergoing rapid and

significant social changes. Driven by modernization, the rise in individualism, and the improve-

ment of women’s education and social status, lifetime singlehood and premarital cohabitation

have become more common in China. The determinants of later marriages in contemporary

China that have been proven include ideals of romantic love (Yan, 2002), the expansion of

higher education and rapid increases in women’s labor force participation (Tian, 2013), and the

skyrocketing costs of housing in larger cities because property ownership is widely regarded as

a precondition of family formation (Yu & Xie, 2015).

The trend of later marriages in China is also related to rapid urbanization following the

economic reform since 1978, yet existing research has limited knowledge of the trends and

patterns of the Chinese family in transition, especially for those rural migrant workers. Dif-

ferent from urbanization in Western countries, urbanization in China displays so-called

“hukou-based urbanization,”referring to its operation under an institutionalized two-tier,

rural–urban dual structure, which manifests itself in the typical economic and social terms

mainly through a system of hereditary residency and eligibility rights to social services

(Chan, 2014).Since1978,thepeasantshavebeenallowedtogotothecityforworkbutstill

maintain their rural hukou type, and these peasants are called “rural migrant workers”(nong

min gong). They work and live in the city but with little or no access to urban social services

tied to urban hukou population. According to the data from the seventh census of China in

2020, the urbanization rate of the permanent resident population is 63.89%, however, that

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