The determinants and consequences of the transformation from arranged marriages to free choice marriages in Chengdu, China.

Abstract

In the past few decades, there has been a significant transformation from parentally arranged to self-directed marriages in urban China. This dissertation employs quantitative methods and the probability sample survey data collected among ever married women from Chengdu, Sichuan, the People's Republic of China, to answer several important questions that concern this transformation. These questions are: how is the marriage system transformation in urban China brought about? What are the important factors that cause this change? Would Chengdu women with free choice marriages feel happier or more satisfied with their marriages than those with arranged marriages? In order to answer these questions, two theoretical models are formulated. First, the author explicates a model that links structural changes such as the expansion of education, non-family employment, urbanization, and the role played by the socialist Party state system to the transformation of marriage arrangements in urban China. The results show that unlike Japan and Taiwan's experiences, the socialist Party state in urban China has played a significant role in transforming arranged marriages by transforming the urban economy and society and implementing the 1950 Marriage Law in the 1950s. This process exemplifies a different pathway toward marriage system transition under the socialist system. It is, therefore, argued that previous studies are inadequate, since the state as a change agent has been largely neglected. Another model that relates the transformation of marriage arrangements to marital quality is formulated. Marital quality has two distinct components: Marital Harmony and Marital Disharmony. The results from LISREL models indicate that net of premarital experiences, premarital and marital resources, the division of domestic chores, and the power relationship between husband and wife, free choice marriages produce more favorable marital outcomes than arranged marriages. However, the superiority of free choice over arranged marriages is reduced considerably at later stages. The results also show that there is no significant causal linkage between the transformation of marriage arrangements and Marital Disharmony.