Just How Do I Love Thee?: Marital Relations in Urban China

Marriage quality is much studied, but mostly in the West. This study applies such research to a large, representative sample of couples from urban China using a multidimensional measure of marriage quality. Characteristics unique to Chinese families—the importance of parental approval of mates and the importance of marriage type—continue to exert a strong influence on the pattern of marriage quality. However, results also support Western feminist arguments that egalitarian behaviors—division of chores and decision making—and attitudes strongly impact marriage quality, but in sometimes unique ways for each gender. As in the West, children are associated with lower marriage quality, partly through increasing domestic inequality, but only in certain types of marriages.