Continuing the Family Lineage? Primary Family Members’ Traditional Fertility Values and Fertility in Rural China

Using data from the 2014 and 2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study extended the analytical framework of fertility research from individual or dyadic perspectives to the intergenerational family context. It examined the correlation between the number of children and the traditional familism values of women, their husbands, and their co-residing parents-in-law in rural China. The results show that: (1) the traditional fertility values of both husbands and wives are significantly and positively associated with their number of children; (2) the association for wives weakens across birth cohorts, whereas it remains stable (but at a lower level) for husbands; (3) parents-in-law’s traditional values remain predictive of offspring couples’ fertility, affecting it indirectly—via the husband’s values and via parents-in-law’s own fertility behavior—rather than directly. These results underscore the importance of multigenerational frameworks for understanding fertility determinants and provide fresh theoretical insights into fertility trajectories in late-developing nations.