This is an application from a new investigator to explore the consequences of population policy for child well-being using data from the People's Republic of China, where population policy is an important constraint on reproductive behavior. This research capitalizes on variation in the extent to which the one child policy mandates one child throughout China by using novel local-level measures of this policy to investigate the effects of policy characteristics on child care, child nutrition, and early childhood education. Data are from two sources including, first, four waves (1989, 1991, 1993, 1997) of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) which includes panel data from 3800 households in 188 communities across eight provinces. The data include a combination of relevant contextual measures, such as local economic context and local characteristics of the one child policy, and individual measures for such variables as women's reproductive behavior and children's care, nutrition, and school arrangements. The second source includes 48 long discursive interviews focusing on child care issues and conducted in Hubei province by the Principal Investigator.
Three aims motivate this research: (1) To describe children's well-being using multiple outcomes for children age 1 to 6 and to investigate its relationship to variation in the implementation of one child policy; (2) to examine the link between local characteristics of the one child policy and individual fertility behavior and use of contraceptive method; and (3) to evaluate the effects of a gendered population policy on fertility behavior, contraceptive use, and child well-being.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01HD037877-01
Application #
2884434
Study Section
Social Sciences and Population Study Section (SSP)
Program Officer
Evans, V Jeffery
Project Start
1999-09-01
Project End
2002-08-31
Budget Start
1999-09-01
Budget End
2000-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1999
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Brown University
Department
Type
Organized Research Units
DUNS #
001785542
City
Providence
State
RI
Country
United States
Zip Code
02912
Short, Susan; Zhang, Fengyu (2004) Use of maternal health services in rural China. Popul Stud (Camb) 58:3-19