Marriage and having kids losing appeal

Study finds more college students view partnership, parenthood trivial

More than half of Chinese college students consider marriage unimportant, and nearly 60 percent feel the same about having children, according to a recent study.

Researchers are urging schools to offer courses on love and relationships and for policy support to ease the financial burden on young adults.

The findings were released by the Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences as part of the fourth edition of its national mental health development report for 2023 to 2024. The study surveyed nearly 56,000 college students and about 7,300 adults.