School of Public Finance and Taxation, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, 555 Liutai Avenue, Wenjiang District, Chengdu, 611130, Sichuan, China.
Sci Rep. 2024 Aug 17;14(1):19051. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-69799-1.
Since 2016, China has progressively relaxed family planning policies to stimulate birth rates. This paper examines the behavioral health repercussions of China's 2016 universal two-child policy (UTCP) by analyzing sleep pattern data from China Family Panel Studies. Napping is a composite indicator that denotes health outcomes, job quality, and personal well-being. It reveals work conditions and environments to some extent. UTCP may lead to heightened social expectations regarding pregnancy likelihood, and changes in social expectations within the workplace may make work environments less equitable and more stressful for females. Leveraging a difference-in-difference model, this paper explores how napping behaviors among the working-age cohort have responded to the policy shifts. Our analysis reveals a gender discrepancy in response to the policy, specifically, females exhibit a discernible reduction in the likelihood of napping, as well as in the duration of both daytime naps and daily sleep. Conversely, such effects are not significant among males. These results suggest policy consequences extend beyond individuals directly impacted by childbirth or contemplating parenthood. Hence, while promoting fertility is still the government's goal, policymakers are encouraged to consider the broader challenges the female population faces from social and workplace environment factors.
自 2016 年以来，中国逐步放宽计划生育政策以刺激出生率。本文通过分析中国家庭追踪调查的睡眠模式数据，考察了中国 2016 年普遍二孩政策（UTCP）的行为健康影响。小睡是一个综合指标，它表示健康状况、工作质量和个人幸福感。它在一定程度上揭示了工作条件和环境。UTCP 可能会导致对怀孕可能性的社会期望提高，而工作场所内的社会期望变化可能会使女性的工作环境变得更加不平等和压力更大。本文利用双重差分模型，探讨了工作年龄段人群的小睡行为如何对政策变化做出反应。我们的分析显示，政策反应存在性别差异，具体来说，女性小睡的可能性以及白天小睡和每日睡眠时间都明显减少，而男性则没有这种影响。这些结果表明，政策后果不仅限于直接受到生育或考虑为人父母影响的个人。因此，虽然促进生育仍然是政府的目标，但鼓励政策制定者考虑女性在社会和工作场所环境因素方面面临的更广泛挑战。
