The Impact of the Double Reduction Policy on Family Fertility Intention: A Study Based on a Survey of 29 Provinces across China

Abstract

A nation's population is the bedrock of its socio-economic development. In the 1990s, China began to enter the period of low fertility, and its total fertility rate has remained below the replacement level since. Family fertility intention, a major predictive indicator of family reproduction behavior, constitutes an important parameter for projecting fertility levels, relating to the long-term development of the population. Facing the long-standing issue of low fertility, most studies have focused on the impact of fertility policy on the size of the population with little research on the influence of education policy. This study aims to explore the relationship between parents’ attitudes towards the Double Reduction policy and their intention of having more than one child, as well as the mediating effects of family education expenditure and parental educational anxiety on this relationship, using 10341 parents of primary and secondary school students from 29 provincial administrative regions as research subjects.