20世纪80年代和90年代中国城镇家庭的儿童照顾变迁及其启示

Chinese Urban Family's Child Care Arrangements in the 1980s and 1990s

20世纪八九十年代是我国社会经济转型的关键时期,也是理解当前我国普遍存在的育儿焦虑和低生育意愿的重要切入口。本文通过对16个个案的质性研究发现,20世纪80年代城镇家庭更多通过单位获得多种形式的照顾资源,而90年代城镇家庭则更多依靠扩展家庭实现儿童照顾功能。这一转变既受到集体主义向市场化转型的制度变迁、现代化文化模式变迁和家庭结构变迁等结构性因素的形塑,也受到家庭微观策略的影响。本文对我国本土儿童照顾经验的实证研究有利于丰富我们对公共儿童照顾责任分担的认识,对解决当前的“儿童照顾危机”有借鉴意义。

The 1980s and 1990s are the key periods of time to understand the universal anxiety on child raising and low fertility intention given many socio-economic transitions were happening during these two decades.Drawing on a qualitative study using 16cases,this paper finds that urban families in the 1980s relied on work units for various kinds of childcare support while their counterparts in the 1990s depended on extended family for childcare.The foregoing change is shaped by macro-level structural factors including transition from collectivism to marketization,modernization culture mode and the change of family structure,as well as by micro-level strategies.Our empirical work on childcare practices in the past would be valuable for solving current“childcare crisis”and for enriching our imagination on shared childcare responsibility among state,society,and family.