Since the 1980s, the divorce rate in China has been increasing. In 2016, China's divorce rate was 3.01‰ in the country's total population , which has surpassed the vast majority of developed countries in Europe and East Asia. In the US, the divorce rate showed downward trend since 1990s.
Based on these findings, Zhang Chunni, an assistant professor of the Department of Sociology, Peking University, said in her research paper on single parent families that the groups and impact of Chinese couples divorce on their children are different from other countries.
The paper, published in the Social Science Academic Press, noted that divorce is more common in cities than that in rural areas in China, and the higher social and economic status, the higher the divorce rate. Higher status women are more likely to remain single after they divorce. Zhang predicted that divorce would not bring bad influences on children from single-parent families who are financially secure, since some wealthier parents will spend more money on their children to compensate for the divorce.
By contrast, in the US, divorce are more common among couples in lower social and economic strata. This often brought more financial problems to the divorced, which in turn reduced their investment on education and living standard of their children.
Even if couples choose to divorce, Chinese grandparents are still willing to take care of their grandchildren. Their financial support and care further eased the burden of single-parent families. This is not common in developed countries or other eastern Asian countries.
In addition, most Chinese families are child-centered. The child is a crucial factor for Chinese couples to decide whether to divorce or not. In China, many parents still choose to stay unhappily married for the sake of providing stability for their child.