A Comparative Study On Family Structure And Marital Relationship Between The Only Children And Non-only Children

This research was meant to investigate and analyze the current situation and characteristics of the family structure and marital relationship of the only children and the same-aged non-only children in our country, and then make a comparison between these two groups to examine if there are some significant differences. The thesis includes three parts. The first part investigated the family structure of the first only children families and theirs peers’ families by basic information questionnaire. The second part was designed to study the marital relationship of the only children and the same-aged non-only children. The last part of this thesis mainly talked about the relationship between Differentiation in Family System and Marital Relationship. The results went:(1) The family structure of young couples is very different from that of the total sample. The proportion of linear families, which has replaced the nuclear family, has become the biggest of all the family structures.(2) The proportion of linear families is about 30% larger than that of nuclear families in single only child family, and the similar data of dual only child family and dual non-only child family is around 12%.(3) The dual only child families and single only child families have the similar characteristic about raring kids. Most of them have only one kid or have no kid. Most of the dual non-only child families have one or more kids, while only 26.1% of them don’t have kid.(4) The Individual Level of Marital Relationship of only children is significantly different from the non-only children, but the difference disappears when the domicile place is controlled.(5) There is no difference among different only children and non-only children families on Spousal Interaction Level of Marital Relationship, even considering other related variables.(6)Differentiation in Family System has a important influence on Marital Relationship, both on Individual Level and Spousal Interaction Level.(7)The Mother-Child Subsystem significantly anticipates spouses’ Marital Adjustment, and the Father-Child Subsystem of wives’ significantly anticipates their Marital Adjustment as well.(8) Own Mother-Child Subsystem and Spouses’ Marriage Subsystem significantly anticipate Marital Satisfaction.(9) Mother-Child Subsystem can also anticipate whether their spouses are satisfied with them during marital interaction process.