<b>Between Autonomy and Interdependence: The Changing Parental Role in Adult Children’s Family Formation in China</b>

<p dir="ltr">This paper investigates changes in the parental role in family formation in contemporary China. Existing studies often focus narrowly on spouse search or are limited to specific historical periods or locations. Expanding the intergenerational contract framework, we adopt a multidimensional approach that examines both parental influence over spouse choice and monetary support after marriage. Using data from the 2006 and 2017 Chinese General Social Survey, we construct marriage cohorts reflecting China’s major social, political, and economic transitions to chart parental involvement in family formation over seven decades. We find a temporary decline in parental influence during the reform era of rapid modernization. Rather than a linear progression toward youth autonomy and independence, we observe lingering parental influence over spouse choice and deepening parental monetary support after marriage, particularly among those married in the 2010s. In addition, gender, <i>hukou</i> status, only child status, and father’s education are significant predictors of parental monetary support. In the newly negotiated intergenerational contract, parents selectively retreat from or advance in different aspects of family formation, in response to modernization forces, China’s familist culture, and the necessity of intergenerational interdependence in an increasingly neoliberal economy. The continued and divergent roles of parents in family formation have important implications for understanding generational dynamics within families and the reproduction of social inequality.</p>