工作时长与青年的性生活、亲密关系和生育意愿

The Impact of Young Adults’ Working Hours on Their Sexual Life, Intimate Relationship and Desire for Childbearing

将工作视为一切的工作主义文化正在影响中国青年的私人生活领域。一方面,超时工作挤压了青年的私人生活空间,造成工作—家庭冲突,对家庭幸福和生育意愿带来消极影响;另一方面,失业或不稳定就业削弱了青年对家庭生活的期待和成家生育的动力。基于2020年“中国人私生活质量调查”数据探讨超时工作和工作时长偏少对中国青年性生活、亲密关系和生育意愿的影响发现,超时工作会影响男性的性生活满意度和未生育女性的生育意愿,但对其他方面并无显著影响;相比之下,工作时长偏少不仅与男性和女性的性生活质量呈负相关,而且也伴随着更低的生育意愿。这些发现对理解当下中国社会的超低生育率具有启示作用。

Workism, a belief that work defines not only one’s identity but also the meaning of life, exerts much influence on to the private life of young adults in China. On the one hand, working overtime may lead to a conflict between family and work, decreasing one’s marital happiness and desires for childbearing;on the other hand, the rise of unemployment and job insecurity may also undermine young people’s confidence and expectation of marriage and childbearing. Drawing on the data from the 2020 Chinese Private Life Survey, this article explores the effects of working overtime and the lack of work on college-educated young adults’ intimate relationship, the quality of sexual life and the desire for childbearing. The result shows that working overtime reduces men’s sexual satisfaction by negatively affecting their health and discourages women from childbearing, but it is not associated with other negative outcomes. We find more negative consequences among those failing to find a job or a full-time job. The lack of work is associated with less-frequent and less-satisfied sexual life and a lower desire for childbearing among both men and women. These findings offer a perspective from workism to understand the low-fertility trap in China.