Division of Parental labor in Chinese Families: Methodological Approaches to Sociological Study

In the context of the dynamic demographic policy in the People's Republic of China, accompanied by active stimulation of the birth rate, transformations of the family institution and the continuing decline in the birth rate, parental labor and its subjects face new challenges. This applies, in particular, to the intra-family division of labor based on the traditional model of gender division. Based on a theoretical analysis based on the theory of exchange, concepts of social solidarity, gender differences, parental labor, and Chinese empirical studies of parenthood, the article highlights the factors influencing the intra-family division of parental labor at the meso– and micro-levels - family structure, identification of subjects of parental labor, its content, attitude to parental labor and its results. On this basis, a system of empirical indicators has been developed, which creates the basis for an empirical study of the intra-family division of parental labor.