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Sleep is an integral part of individuals' health and wellbeing. Despite evidence showing that social stressors are important contributors to older adults' sleep problems, how the accumulative stressful life events (SLEs) and ageing attitudes independently and jointly affect sleep quality among older adults in developing countries remains unclear. This study examined the effects of SLEs on subjectively rated sleep quality among older adults in China, and explored the potential mediating and moderating roles of positive and negative ageing attitudes on the above association. Using data from the 2014 China Longitudinal Ageing Social Survey, we had complete data for 7,780 older adults aged 60 and older. We employed logistic regression models and the Karlson–Holm–Breen decomposition method. Our findings indicated that SLEs significantly increased the risk of poor sleep quality, especially for those who had experienced two or more SLEs during the past year. Positive ageing attitudes were associated with lower odds of poor sleep quality, whereas negative ageing attitudes were related to higher odds of poor sleep quality. Moreover, the mediation analyses suggested that SLEs were associated with poor sleep quality via negative ageing attitudes. The moderating effects further documented that higher levels of positive ageing attitudes can significantly attenuate the deleterious impact of SLEs on sleep quality. The findings highlight the significance of SLEs for older adults' sleep quality and shed light on the importance of ageing attitudes to improve older adults' sleep in China as well as other low- and middle-income countries, where the social safety nets are still underdeveloped.

Using data from 2015 to 2018 waves of the Longitudinal Study of Older Adults in Anhui Province, China, this study investigated associations between different forms of social disconnectedness (social isolation, loneliness, living alone) and psychological well-being of older adults longitudinally. The results showed that social isolation and loneliness were independently associated with psychological well-being, whereas living alone was not. Different forms of social disconnectedness had additive and interactive effects on psychological well-being of older adults. Those who were exposed to all three forms of social disconnectedness suffered from the lowest level of psychological well-being. Moreover, the adverse effects of social disconnectedness on psychological well-being were found to be stronger for older women than for older men. The results underscore the necessity to consider multiple forms of social disconnectedness as well as their different combinations in explaining psychological well-being in later life.

In China, how does the proportion of local-born residents in a community shape the local identity of rural migrants who do not have the local hukou that would allow them to enjoy the local benefits and welfare provided by the government? Our findings show that despite their socially marginalized status, the migrants' level of local identity is strongly related to community composition. Our study is based on data collected recently in Guangzhou, a major city in southern China that has been a popular destination for rural migrants. We found that living in a community with a high percentage of local residents significantly improves the local identity of rural migrants. However, frequent social interaction with local residents mediates this relationship in a community where about half of the residents are local. We also found that the migrants' subjective perception of socioeconomic status positively mediates the relationship between the proportion of local residents in the community and the local identity of rural migrants.

This study examined how adult children’s divorce affected their financial support to older parents in rural China and how that relationship was dependent on children’s gender. The sample was from rural Anhui Province and the working sample included 1629 older parents who reported their interactions with 6210 children across six waves of observations in 14 years (2001–2015). Generalized Estimating Equations showed that divorced sons provided less financial support to their parents than married sons. In contrast, divorced daughters did not necessarily provide less financial support than married daughters. This gender difference was statistically significant. The findings were discussed in the context of changing rural Chinese families, where the norm of filial piety is still strong but patrilineal tradition and gender ideology have experienced desynchronized changes.

This study provides one of the first population-based investigations of the longitudinal association between social isolation and sleep difficulty among older adults in China. We analyzed three waves of longitudinal data from the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (2014–2018), in which 8456 respondents contributed 16,156 person-year observations. Results from multilevel logistic regression models showed that social isolation was related to a higher risk of sleep difficulty. We also found that socially isolated older adults were more likely to report higher levels of depressive symptoms, a greater prevalence of loneliness and pain, and more chronic diseases compared to their socially integrated counterparts, which in turn increased their risks of sleep difficulty. Moreover, socially isolated older adults with chronic diseases were particularly vulnerable to the risk of sleep difficulty. These findings provide helpful guidance for policymakers and practitioners to design effective intervention strategies to help older adults with sleep problems.

During China's recent social transition, rural communities have experienced rapid changes in resources, organizational structure, and governance due to urbanization, rural industrialization, and rural-urban migration. How these communities react to social adversity and uncertainty can be assessed with an index of perceived community resilience. Using a Chinese version of the perceived community resilience scale, we analyze data from a multilevel survey of two rural counties in central China. Latent profile analysis and a multilevel regression mixture model are employed to classify community resilience and to explore how the social-ecological system influences this classification. Community resilience is classified into “autonomous community”, “cooperative community”, and “authoritative community”, and we find the proportion of cooperative communities to be the highest and the proportion of autonomous communities is lowest. These results suggest that cooperation among rural residents in rural communities is increasing. How rural residents perceive community resilience is based on their individual features, which reflect the impacts of recent social changes on livelihoods. Socio-ecological variables, including geographical features, financial status, social networks, and traditional culture, have significant effects on the categories of community resilience. In today's China, rural residents have decreased their dependence on rural leaders and increased cooperation at the community level. Some autonomous communities may be unsustainable as they are populated mainly by the elderly and have insufficient resources to be adaptable.

Family resilience is the capacity of a family to mitigate adversity using its resources, structure, and internal connections. In rural China, where sustainable livelihoods are changing rapidly because of urbanization and migration, it is not clear how family resilience interacts with sustainability of livelihoods. This study of rural Chinese families classifies individual’s perceived family resilience and discusses how sustainable livelihoods influence this classification. A multilevel survey of rural families reveals three categories of perceived resilience in families: perceived optimistic families, perceived cooperative families, and perceived pessimistic families. Sustainable livelihoods, including natural, social, financial, and human capitals, have significant impacts on this classification of perceived family resilience. We conclude that rural families in China vary in their levels of family resilience, and the more physical and financial capital they have, the more internal cooperation there is within families. The more natural and traditional social capital families have, the less internal cooperation there is within families. The more human resources families have, the more resilience they have.

When the film is under no stress, it does not show any stiffness or capability to withstand loads. Therefore, with the help of ANSYS motion, the author applied pre-stress, controlled point coordinates and the equation of equivalent stress surface and used form-finding conditions to explore the equilibrium state of the films in different depths. The author established curve fitting equations and designed a new membrane-removing mulch film recovery machine. The author also analyzed key components and separately established regression equations between recovery rate, damage rate, release rate and the working angle of film picking mechanism, as well as the regression equation between the depth of picking mechanism into the soil and the working angle of clamping conveyor. Then the author conducted the variance analysis on these regression equations. By using Design Expert 8.0.6 to optimize the solution, when the working angle of the pick-up mechanism is 27.31°, the depth of the pick-up mechanism is 73.0 mm. The working angle of the clamping and conveying device is 38.33°, the recovery rate is 93.9% and the damage rate is 89.3%. The test result shows that when parameters are set as above values, the recovery rate of residual film is 92.5%, the release rate is 87.6% and the error values of damage rate and release rate are both lower than 1.5%, which have verified the feasibility of the optimization solution. The experimental result can work as a reference for the optimum working parameters of the new membrane-removing mulch film recovery machine.

This study investigates associations between internal migration and health among middle-aged and older adults in China, including variations associated with type of migration (rural-to-urban, urban-to-rural, rural-to-rural, urban-to-urban). Data were drawn from China’s Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011, 2013, 2015). Lagged panel and fixed-effect regression models address associations between migration and health outcomes (self-rated health, depression) while controlling for pre-migration and post-migration selection effects. The results reveal the positive implications of rural-to-urban migration for the self-rated health of middle-aged but not older adults. They also point to the positive effects of migration within and to rural areas for the self-rated and mental health of older adults. Overall, although migration may be beneficial to the health of internal migrants in China, complexities associated with age, type of migration, and the health outcome involved need to be taken into account.

Despite the vast literature on the socioeconomic status (SES) gradient of obesity among adult people, no study has investigated the relationship between institutional power and body mass index. Using national survey data from the “China Labor-force Dynamics Survey 2016” (CLDS 2016), multistage cluster-stratified probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling was employed to select cases from 29 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions in China. This study adopts an institutional approach to explore the influences of SES and institutional power on the state of being overweight or severely overweight (obese) among Chinese adults. It is shown that SES has a non-linear influence on being overweight or obese, higher education has a negative effect on being overweight or obese, income has an inverted U-shaped effect on being overweight or obese, and having a managerial or administrative job has a positive effect on being overweight but less so on obesity. These findings reveal that disparities in health outcome and risks are due to inequality in SES. The work unit is a stronger predictor of adults being overweight or obese than occupation. Working in the public sector has a positive effect on being overweight relative to working in the private sector, and only state institutions and government departments have a positive association with obesity. Our results indicate that institutional structure still has effects on individuals’ life chances in the era of China’s market transition.

Our study links the life satisfaction of internal migrants with assessment of their migration outcomes in relation to the people back home and their integration experience. Our research add...

Many factors have contributed to the decline in China’s fertility level. Using China’s population census data from 1990, 2000 and 2010, the present study investigates the factors causing the decline in China’s fertility rate by decomposing changes in two fertility indices: the total fertility rate (TFR) and the net reproduction rate (NRR). The change in the TFR is decomposed into the change in the marital fertility rate (MFR) and the change in the proportion of married women (PMW). Four factors contribute to the change in the NRR. The following are the main findings. A drop in the MFR caused a decrease in the TFR and the NRR between 1989 and 2000. However, the change in MFR increased TFR and NRR between 2000 and 2010. Marriage postponement caused a decline in the fertility level between 1989 and 2000 as well as between 2000 and 2010. The effect of the MFR and marriage postponement varied with age and region and also between urban and rural areas.

Using six waves of longitudinal data (2001-2015) collected in Anhui, China (N = 2,131) and generalized estimating equations (GEE) models, this study fulfilled several objectives. First, the study compared the widowed to the married to examine if the transition to and duration of widowhood contributes to changes in depression. Second, the study examined if the bereavement-depression relationship is a process that precedes widowhood or is an abrupt change following the death of a spouse. Third, the study examined if social resources influence the bereavement-depression relationship. The study found that there is pre-widowhood effect on depression and that the widowhood event also contributes to increases in depression. Levels of post-widowhood depressive symptoms peak during the first six months bereavement and taper off within 25 months. Controlling for social support, contact with children, and living arrangements does not change the bereavement-depression relationship. The findings support Attachment Theory, which suggests that the loss of a spouse leads to emotional isolation that cannot be overcome with kin-based social support and social integration.

Objectives:The aim of this study was to examine how the factors suggested by the Terror Management Theory are associated with death anxiety among rural Chinese older adults.Method:Data were derived from a longitudinal survey of older adults aged 60 and above, had at least one living child, and were living in rural areas of Anhui Province. The working sample included 1,362 older adults. Two-level random effects models were used.Results:Children’s financial support was negatively related to death anxiety, whereas emotional closeness with children was positively related to death anxiety. Older women reported more death anxiety than older men. Functional limitations were positively associated with death anxiety, and the widowed reported less death anxiety than the married. We did not find a significant association between religious belief and death anxiety.Discussion:The study highlights the importance of culture in shaping death anxiety among older adults in rural China.

In this chapter, we use data from a survey of rural residents in Xi’an, Yan’an and other places undertaken by Xi’an Jiaotong University to perform an empirical analysis of the impact of ecological compensation policies on rural livelihoods and on the poverty alleviation efforts in the western mountainous areas.

With about 70% of its territory covered with mountains and hills, China faces the serious challenge of soil erosion. Its particular geographical features, socioeconomic conditions as well as improper ways of land development and utilization work together to exacerbate the problem, producing far-reaching and wide-ranging impacts.

The Five-pronged Poverty Alleviation Measures were first proposed at the National Conference on Poverty Alleviation and Development held in end-2015. One of the five prongs is resettling poor residents from inhospitable areas, the most challenging part of the poverty alleviation program. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, a total of 9.81 million rural residents were relocated for this purpose. This figure includes 1.3 million people registered as poor in Guizhou and another 1.25 million people registered as poor in Shaanxi.

In this chapter, we conduct an empirical analysis of the perceptions of rural household regarding the fairness of the Grain-for-Green program and of the welfare impact of the Grain-for-Green policy for rural households in the western mountainous regions based on the theoretical examination of evaluation standards for ecological compensation programs performed in Chapter Five as well as actual survey data from Ankang, Shaanxi Province and Zhouzhi County, Xi’an.

Poverty and environmental deterioration are the two major problems that many developing countries face. Population growth and rapid economic development in China have been often accompanied by the irrational use of natural resources, environmental deterioration, and shrinking biodiversity. The conflict between the population and economy on the one hand, and resources and the environment on the other, is becoming increasingly prominent in rural areas in western China. The livelihood activities of the rural population in ecologically fragile areas are at the heart of the conflict, and are thus particularly worthy of attention. Just how to improve the living standards, to protect the local environment, and to promote the sustainable development of rural areas has always been a concern of government departments and experts and scholars. An effective mechanism dealing with both problems needs to be introduced, so as to promote sustainable livelihoods for farmers in ecologically fragile areas and at the same time protect local environments through policy interventions.

Relations of households in poor mountainous areas to the environment are reflected on the one hand by households’ behavior of forest resource utilization and production, forestry-related production and direct utilization of forest resources—e.g., non-timber forest products and wildcrafting, and dependence for livelihood on forest resources, and on the other hand by households’ attitudes, satisfaction, and other perceptions with respect to policies on ecological protection and forestry in the mountains areas where they live.

The term “shengji”, the Chinese term for “livelihood”, first appeared in the 1978 edition of the Modern Chinese Dictionary (Xiandai Hanyu Cidian). Two definitions for the term were given: (1) a means of sustaining life; and (2) a term used to describe living itself. Here, “living” encompasses elements such as clothing, food, housing, and travel/transport. In the English language, the term “livelihood” is also defined as the means and way of sustaining life.

Livelihood choices are one of the main topics in the study of rural livelihood. This chapter offers an empirical analysis of the livelihood choices of rural households in poverty-stricken mountainous areas in western China. As relative poverty has become an increasingly prominent problem among rural households in China, it is necessary for us to assess and measure poverty from multiple perspectives. As such, there are three sections in this chapter. The first section examines the background of the two rural household surveys from which this book draws its empirical study, as well as the surveys proper. In the second section, we look at the livelihood choices made by rural households in Ankang, and in the third section we look at ways of measuring multi-dimensional poverty in rural households.

In the traditional system of Chinese families, individuals are embedded in the institution of the family with defined obligations to enhance family development. As a consequence of the male-biased sex ratio at birth in China since the 1980s, an increasing number of surplus rural males have been affected by a marriage squeeze becoming involuntary bachelors. Under China's universal heterosexual marriage tradition, family development of rural involuntary bachelors has largely been ignored, but in China's gender-imbalanced society, it is necessary to adopt a family-based approach to identify and study the plight of rural involuntary bachelors. Studies on gender imbalance indicate that these men face multiple risks from the perspectives of their life course, the family life cycle, and the family ethic. To a certain extent, these risks are caused by a conflict between the individual's family life and family ethics and are mainly reflected in problems concerning marriage, health, and old-age support. Not only do these vulnerabilities affect the individual and family development across the whole life cycle but also pose major risks to social development in the face of strong gender imbalance. In order to deal with risks faced by rural involuntary bachelors, core ethical principles, including autonomy, beneficence, and justice, need to be adopted. Through adjustments to informal support provided by the family and formal support provided by policy-makers, risk of uncertainty in family development faced by rural involuntary bachelors could be reduced.

The ability of the poor to participate gainfully in pro-poor tourism (PPT) projects is an important but understudied factor in determining poverty alleviation impact. This study aims to address this knowledge gap by exploring the relationship between participation, income, and livelihood capital at the household level using China as a case study. We examined eight PPT projects in southern Shaanxi, a poverty-stricken region that has abundant tourism resources. Our comparative approach revealed the differences between participating and non-participating households. We found that the level of participation is 36% and the main form of participation was through family-run businesses. Participating households earned a significantly higher income than non-participating households. The former also had significantly more material, financial, political, social, and human capital. These findings underscore the capability of tourism as a poverty alleviation tool and reveal problems regarding the growing inequality between participating and non-participating households.

This study provides one of the first population-based studies investigating associations between social isolation, especially its two sub-dimensions (family isolation and friendship isolation), and sleep quality among older adults in China. We address three major research questions: 1) Does the risk of poor sleep quality vary by social isolation status? 2) Are the associations between social isolation and sleep quality mediated by mental disorders (depressive symptoms and loneliness) and physical impairments (pain and comorbidity)? and 3) Does the isolation from family members and friends differ in explaining sleep quality? We analyzed data from the 2014 wave of the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS), in which 7,597 respondents (aged 60-98) had complete information on measures of sleep quality (self-rated sleep difficulty), social isolation (using the Lubben Social Network Scale), and other analytical variables. Logistic regression models were estimated to predict the risk of sleep difficulty and Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) decomposition method was employed to test potential mediating effects. Results showed that social isolation, both family and friendship isolation, was significantly associated with higher risks of having sleep difficulty. The adverse effect of family isolation was found to be stronger than that of friendship isolation. Although both mental disorders and physical impairments mediated significant shares of associations between social isolation and sleep quality, physical impairments explained a lesser extent of them than mental disorders. These findings will be helpful for health policymakers and practitioners to design effective intervention strategies to help older adults with sleep problems.

China currently has the world’s most skewed national sex ratio at birth. In this paper, we use data from China’s 2001 National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Survey and employ hierarchical logistic models to study how macro factors (mainly fertility policy and economic indicators, as represented by per capita GDP of the village units sampled in this research) and micro factors (mainly fertility intention and sex composition of children) affect the gender of the next birth. We find that the effect of fertility policies is intertwined with the sex composition of children already born. For those couples who have had a son (or sons), fertility policy exerts no effect; but for those with only daughters, the effect is significant. Furthermore, fertility intention, independent from fertility policy, has a significant effect on the gender of the next birth.

China is facing a male marriage squeeze, as there are more men in the marriage market than potential female partners. As a consequence, some men may fail to ever marry. However, while some studies have suggested that most unmarried men affected by the marriage squeeze in rural China feel a sense of failure, the quality of life of the men who remain unmarried against their will remains largely unexplored. Using data collected in rural Hanbin district of Ankang City (Shaanxi, China), this study analyzes the relationship between the marriage squeeze and the quality of life among rural men. Descriptive analyses indicate that the quality of life of unmarried men aged 28 years and older tends to be worse than for both younger unmarried men and married men. Also, the quality of life of men who perceive the marriage squeeze appears to be worse than that of those who do not. Regression analyses reveal that the perceived marriage squeeze and age independently have a significant negative relationship with the quality of life of rural men.

Based on survey data collected from five counties across southern Shaanxi, China, the present study employs a multinomial logistic model to explore the main factors related to the type of poverty of rural households, particularly focusing on the role of relocation time, reason for relocation, and type of relocation. The results showed that three types of poverty, &ldquo, voluntary poverty&rdquo, &ldquo, transient poverty&rdquo, and &ldquo, chronic poverty&rdquo, are distinguished by combining income and consumption criteria. Moreover, relocation and settlement programs contribute to a certain degree to these three kinds of poverty, and the effects vary according to the relocation characteristics. Specifically, those relocated long-term were more likely to be trapped in &ldquo, whereas those relocated short-term were less likely to fall into &ldquo, The poverty alleviation and disaster-related resettlers were less likely to be trapped in &ldquo, whereas centralized resettlers were less likely to be trapped in &ldquo, Additionally, demographic characteristics, capital endowment variables, and geographical features are all important factors affecting rural households&rsquo, type of poverty. This study can serve as a reference for further resettlement practice in China and other developing countries.

International audience; Coupled with the social practice of female hypergamy, the male surplus within the never-married population means that today's Chinese marriage market is extremely tight in particular for men from a rural background and the least privileged socio-economic categories. Drawing on quantitative data from a survey conducted in 2014–2015, this article sheds light on the situation of single men who are past prime marriage age in three rural districts of Shaanxi particularly affected by this phenomenon. It compares single men's characteristics to those of their married counterparts and offers insights into the heterogeneity of single men with the aim of challenging some commonly accepted assumptions about bachelorhood in rural China. Results suggest a strong internalization of the various characteristics, centred on being able to offer social mobility to a potential wife, that a man is expected to have to be attractive to women in a context where women have more choice in mate selection. We conclude that mate selection is highly marked by class, social norms, social interactions, health, generation and age, and requires the mobilization of certain amounts of individual, social and economic resources. Unwanted bachelorhood would thus be better understood using an intersectional approach rather than mainly in numeric terms.; 由于女性择偶向上选择等社会因素，单身男性的数量过剩已让中国婚姻市场十分紧张，尤其是对那些出身农村和处于社会经济劣势地位的男性而言，这一现象更是突出。根据 2014–2015 年展开的量化调查资料，本文试图以接受调查的陕西三县农村地区、超过普遍初婚年龄的单身男性为研究对象，阐明他们的处境。本文对比了单身男性和已婚男性的分别特征，展示了他们之间的差异，提出了一些与中国农村单身现象通常假设相悖的看法。研究结果表明在女性能够更宽泛选择配偶的背景下，男性内在化社会男性期待（主要指男性需为女性提供通过婚姻实现向上社会流动的条件和契机）的倾向十分强烈。我们认为，对配偶的选择与阶层、社会规范和社会互动方式、健康条件、代际和年龄等都密切相关，而且意味着对一定数量个人社会经济资源的动用。因此，比起以数据观察为主的单纯视角，多元交叉视角能让我们更好理解“非自愿”单身现象。

Protecting and restoring natural capital—Earth’s lands, waters, and biodiversity, and the life-supporting goods and services that flow from these—have been promoted by many as the best hope for conserving biodiversity while also supporting sustainable, inclusive growth. Evidence is growing that illuminating the ways in which people depend on nature for their well-being can motivate efforts that improve both (Guerry et al. 2015; chapter 4, this volume). Creative yet highly dispersed innovation has shown glimpses of what is possible.

Growth in human population and economic activity has dramatically transformed our planet since the Industrial Revolution. While driving significant improvements in human well-being, these forms of growth also deeply eroded the natural capital embodied in Earth’s lands, waters, and biodiversity. Rapid economic development has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and raised the standard of living and life expectancies of many more, but the costs of this success cast a long shadow over future well-being.

Despite increasing acknowledgement that social integration/isolation is an important determinant of health in later life, relevant evidence for older adults in less developed social contexts is still limited. Data derived from 2015 and 2018 waves of a longitudinal study of 976 older adults, aged 60 and older, living in rural areas of Anhui Province, China. We analyzed how the level of social integration/isolation (measured as family and friendship ties) impacted depressive symptoms of older adults. Our results showed that more than half of older adults in our sample were either isolated from family or friends. Further analysis demonstrated that older people who were isolated from friends were more depressed in comparison with those who were closely integrated into friendship ties, while no such association was found in relation to family ties. Assessments of social integration among older adults should account for both family and friendship ties.

Using data from a survey conducted in Chaohu City among rural women, this study analyzes their subjective wellbeing, their marital relationships and livelihood strategy, and also analyzes how marital relationship and livelihood strategy affect the subjective wellbeing of left-behind women in comparison with non-left-behind women and temporary-left-behind women. It is found that both the marital relationship which represents “love” and the livelihood strategy which represents “bread” affect the subjective wellbeing among the three groups of rural women. However, the importance and specific contents of “love” and “bread” to the women varies among the three groups. For the left-behind women, “love” and the “bread” are equally important and play independent roles in subjective wellbeing. For the temporary-left-behind and the non-left-behind women, both “love” and “bread” are important, with “bread” as the apparent foundation of the “love”.

Child sex ratios plateaued in China between the censuses of 2000 and 2010, a major change from decades of sharp rises. In India they rose by 1.4 per cent during the intercensal period 2001–2011, which is a much slower rate of increase than in previous decades, and reported son preference is falling. In both countries, the largest declines are in regions that had the highest child sex ratios earlier, while some surrounding regions show rises. State policies to reduce sex-selection through offering financial incentives or banning the use of sex-selective technology show limited evidence of effectiveness. In China, the overall level of sex-selection remained stable, while the census data show a sharp shift towards sex-selection at the first birth—likely related to the mode of implementation of the program to reduce sex-selection. Studies indicate that media outreach can be very effective at changing norms and behaviors, including reducing son preference. Reducing the demand for sex-selection may offe...

Most research findings agree that women have higher levels of anomie than men; that is, socially derived feelings of depression and alienation that sometimes result in deviance. These conclusions are derived from general population samples in industrialized western countries and may or may not apply to China for various reasons. At present, Chinese society is undergoing two major structural changes: gender imbalance resulting from the One-child Policy, and population migration. This article studies the factors that determine anomie and its gender difference among rural migrant workers in the context of gender imbalance in China. Multivariate analyses of data from a survey of rural migrant workers in Xiamen city, Fujian province, conducted in 2009 show that gender, marital status, social role, and characteristics related to breadwinning have significant influences on anomie among rural migrant workers; men have higher levels of anomie than women, and unmarried people, especially older unmarried people have higher levels of anomie than married people, but there is little gender difference in the influence of marital status on anomie. There are gender differences in the influence of social role and characteristics relating to breadwinning on anomie.

Poverty is increasingly stressed in Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes, from targeting to outcomes. As the world&rsquo, s largest PES scheme of its kind, the Sloping Land Conversion Program in China started its new stage (NSLCP), aiming to convert another 2.9 million ha sloping croplands into forest or grasslands. This paper examines whether and to what extent different dimensions of poverty impact households&rsquo, participation in the NSLCP. By using the data collected from a key demonstration area, Wuqi County in 2015, based on Sen&rsquo, s capability theory, we measure the multidimensional poverty of the households, like poverty in education, physical health, food security, rights, assets and living standards. Then, we evaluate the effects of different poverty dimensions on households&rsquo, participation in the NSLCP and their efforts to comply with the policy. We find that different dimensions of poverty had very different impacts, as revealed in the participating rate and the intensity of efforts to manage the enrolled lands through different methods. The households with poverty in education, food security, or rights were less likely to be enrolled in the NSLCP. Dimensions like income, health and assets were significant contributions to fulfill the practices required by the NSLCP. Besides, the degree of multidimensional poverty further weakened households&rsquo, efforts to manage and protect the trees on enrolled lands.