Struggling to live a new normal life among Chinese women after losing an only child:A qualitative study

Objectives:Losing an only child is a life-altering event that destroys Chinese women’s lives and health in several dimensions.However,there is no unified theory exists to guide nursing practice.This study aimed to discover the substantive theory of how Chinese women live with the loss of their only child.Methods:This qualitative study used the grounded theory method.Purposive sampling,snowball sampling,and theoretical sampling were used to recruit participants.Saturated data from the in-depth interview,observation,and field notes with 13 Chinese women who have lost an only child in Southwest China were analyzed using the constant comparative method concurrently supplemented by the ATLAS.ti program,memo writing,and diagramming.Findings:Struggling to live a new normal life among Chinese women after losing an only child emerged as the substantive theory.It consists of three phases:living in agony,coming to terms,being alive in a new way.Receiving support motivated them to deal with such a loss.However,it brought them back to the previous phase(s)whenever they encountered adverse triggering situations.Therefore,they moved back and forth between these phases.The findings also illustrated that this process was profoundly affected by Chinese culture and personal beliefs.Conclusions:This substantive theory may guide nursing practice based on understanding the living process by working through the three phases.It would help develop a professional care plan recognizing individual diversity and incorporating socio-cultural and religious knowledge to effectively support women to deal with the loss of an only child.

Comparative study on emotional behavior and parental job stress of only-child and non-only-child preschool children

BACKGROUND Studies have revealed that Children's psychological,behavioral,and emotional problems are easily influenced by the family environment.In recent years,the family structure in China has undergone significant changes,with more families having two or three children.AIM To explore the relationship between emotional behavior and parental job stress in only preschool and non-only preschool children.METHODS Children aged 3-6 in kindergartens in four main urban areas of Shijiazhuang were selected by stratified sampling for a questionnaire and divided into only and nononly child groups.Their emotional behaviors and parental pressure were compared.Only and non-only children were paired in a 1:1 ratio by class and age(difference less than or equal to 6 months),and the matched data were compared.The relationship between children's emotional behavior and parents'job stress before and after matching was analyzed.RESULTS Before matching,the mother's occupation,children's personality characteristics,and children's rearing patterns differed between the groups(P<0.05).After matching 550 pairs,differences in the children's parenting styles remained.There were significant differences in children's gender and parents'attitudes toward children between the two groups.The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire(SDQ)scores of children in the only child group and the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form(PSI-SF)scores of parents were significantly lower than those in the non-only child group(P<0.05).Pearson’s correlation analysis showed that after matching,there was a positive correlation between children's parenting style and parents'attitudes toward their children(r=0.096,P<0.01),and the PSI-SF score was positively correlated with children's gender,parents'attitudes toward their children,and SDQ scores(r=0.077,0.193,0.172,0.222).CONCLUSION Preschool children's emotional behavior and parental pressure were significantly higher in multi-child families.Parental pressure in differently structured families was associated with many factors,and preschool children's emotional behavior was positively correlated with parental pressure.

The Trade-Off between Quantity and Quality in Family Fertility Decision:Evidence from China's Family Planning Policy

Based on the Chinese General Social Survey 2006 and 2008 data,this paper assesses the influence of the family planning policy on the qualitative development of children using education attainment and individual income of only children versus children with siblings as parameters.Our results show the following:(1)only children are better-educated than their counterparts with siblings;(2)only children earn higher income in comparison to their counterparts with siblings;(3)the income and education gaps between girls with and without siblings are greater than those between boys;(4)the education gaps between only children and children with siblings are greater for those born in the 1970s,but the income difference between only children and children with siblings is only significant for those born in the 1980s;and(5)the income and education gaps between only children and children with siblings are higher in urban regions.Results indicate that families with only one child invest more resources in children's quality under the family planning policy,which is consistent with the"quantity-quality trade-off"theory proposed by Gary Becker.