Chapter 3: Transforming Marriage Purpose in Contemporary China: The Role of Cohort and College Education^*

The declining marriage rate in China has garnered significant attention. Previous studies have attributed this trend to increasingly negative attitudes toward marriage, yet the underlying reasons for this shift in attitudes have been less explored. This study seeks to address this gap by examining how Chinese individuals define the purpose of marriage. Utilizing data from the 2021 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), this study investigates marriage purposes and their cohort dynamics, with a particular focus on the influence of college education. The findings reveal that post-materialistic purposes of marriage have gained prominence in more recent cohorts, while materialistic purposes, although still relatively low, are on the rise. Traditional marriage purposes are decreasing. College education discourages the adoption of traditional and materialistic marriage purposes, although its effect on materialistic purposes has diminished over time. This study contributes to the argumentation on the applicability of modernization theory within the marriage domain in the Chinese context and offers a new perspective on the decreasing marriage rate.