Parental domestic assistance has become a vital resource for young families coping with work-family conflict in China, yet its consequences for the gendered allocation of housework remain underexplored. Using longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (2010-2022) and fixed-effects regression models, this study examines how parental help in domestic work shapes the gendered division of household labor among both older parents and younger adult-child couples. Results show that parents who assist their adult children experience increased housework demands, with mothers' housework time increasing more than fathers', suggesting a wider gender gap among helping parents; by contrast, among adult-child couples, parental assistance is associated with wives' reduced housework hours and a narrower gender gap. Mediation analysis further indicates that wives' employment serves as a potential pathway through which parental help is associated with a narrower gender gap in housework time. These results highlight the collectively negotiated redistribution of domestic responsibilities within China's multigenerational families.
The advanced language capabilities of large language models (LLMs) have intensified humans' tendency to anthropomorphize technology. This research takes an interactional, processual approach to examine human-AI intimacy. We introduce the "anthropomorphism paradox," arguing that while anthropomorphic design effectively cultivates emotional attachment, it concurrently elevates user desire for genuine reciprocity and evolving mutual understanding, which current AI cannot meet. This mismatch between humans' evolving, relational interpretation of intimacy and AI's preset, simulated logic ultimately leads to communication breakdown and even disengagement. Our study, using observational data and interviews with 20 users (including a 6-month follow-up), shows how this paradox drives both initial attraction and attachment, as well as eventual dissolution, in human-AI romantic relationships. This research extends symbolic interactionism and the performative nature of human-LLM chatbot intimacy. Ultimately, AI's viability as an enduring emotional companion is challenged by its inherent generative logic, which is not yet equipped to adapt to the evolving nature of human intimacy.
Can education shield graduates from the storm of AI-induced displacement in the labor market? To address this research question, the study uses China's National College Entrance Examination reform as a policy shock and examines how the abolition of the liberal arts-science tracking system affects graduates' labor market outcomes. Following the upskilling framework and employing a cohort difference-in-differences research design, this study finds that graduates exposed to the National College Entrance Exam reform are more likely to secure an occupation with lower risks of AI-labor substitution, despite the reform not being designed to achieve this spillover effect. Further analyses reveal that this enhanced resilience stems from graduates sorting into occupations that demand higher levels of transferable abilities and work styles, competencies which remain less susceptible to AI-labor substitution. Operational skills are not one of the mediating skills because they are highly vulnerable to the displacement. The findings suggest that interdisciplinary training can endow students with skills irreplaceable in China's AI-oriented labor market. Moreover, this benefit is more pronounced among students from high-income families than their counterparts from low-income families. Educational policies should be recalibrated to align with the context of rapid AI transformation.
To advance understanding of the relationship between marketization and morality in China, this study deploys a conjoint experimental design that generates hypothetical profiles composed of randomized combinations of virtues and vises across a heterogeneous set of moral domains. This approach permits the identification of systematic variation in individuals' moral evaluations across regional contexts characterized by differing levels of marketization. Estimates of both individual and province fixed-effects models yield several consistent findings. First, the evaluative linkage between virtues and their corresponding vises becomes more tightly coupled as marketization intensifies, indicating an increasing integration of positive and negative moral judgments. Second, moralities that are normatively congruent with market-oriented logics-such as integrity, justice, and public spiritedness-exhibit heightened endorsement at higher levels of marketization. Meanwhile, moralities that are less directly aligned with, or functionally independent of, market exchange-including frugality, filial piety, a sense of shame, and bravery-demonstrate a relative decline in evaluative salience. Finally, the analysis reveals patterns that depart from simple monotonic variations: adherence to rules follows a U-shaped relationship with marketization, whereas evaluations of intelligence remain comparatively invariant across contexts. Taken together, these findings underscore the differentiated, multidimensional, and contextually contingent reconfiguration of moral evaluations under conditions of market transformation.
