Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Jul;46(4):531-45.
doi: 10.1017/S0021932013000540. Epub 2013 Oct 8.

The risk of mothers losing an only child in China

Quanbao Jiang  1 , Ying Li  1 , Jesús J Sánchez-Barricarte  2
Affiliations

The risk of mothers losing an only child in China

Quanbao Jiang et al. J Biosoc Sci. 2014 Jul.

Abstract

China's one-child policy has been quite successful in bringing down the country's fertility level but has produced a large number of one-child families. The risk of one-child families losing their only child has not received enough attention. In this paper, using an extension of Goldman & Lord (1983)'s method to measure widowhood, period life-table data from China's 2000 population census are used to examine age-specific and cumulative probabilities of mothers losing their only child. It is found that a mother faces a 14.94% probability of losing a son, and 12.21% probability of losing a daughter. As the age of first-time mothers increases, the probability of losing a child declines. Urban and rural mothers have different indices regarding the loss of children. Based on these findings the prospects for China's one-child policy are discussed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Probability of losing a child for a mother by age and sex of the child (per thousand).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cumulative probability of losing a child for a mother by age and sex of the child (per thousand)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cumulative probability of losing a child for a mother by age and sex of the child (per thousand), motherhood age 36
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Banister J, Hill K. Mortality in China 1964–2000. Population Studies. 2004;58(1):55–75. - PubMed
    1. Bongaarts J, Greenhalgh S. An alternative to the one child policy in China. Population and Development Review. 1985;11(4):585–617.
    1. Cai Y. China’s below-replacement fertility: Government policy or socioeconomic development. Population and Development Review. 2010;36(3):419–440. - PubMed
    1. Choe M, Hao H, Wang F. Effects of gender, birth order, and other correlates on childhood mortality in China. Social Biology. 1995;42(1–2):50–64. - PubMed
    1. Coale AJ, Demeny P. Regional Model Life Tables and Stable Populations. Princeton University Press; 1966.

Publication types