Marriage type in Taiwan has dramatically changed in the past centuries. Along with the reforms of education, employment, family and legislation, the changing marriage type not only remodeled the sex role of spouses but also altered female life planning. This article applies the concept of life course, and regards marriage as a sequence of discrete transitions. We aim to uncover marriage and birth trajectories of Taiwanese females in the Hsinchu area during the Japanese colonial period through constructing the female life history processes. In order to describe the single-to-marriageto- birth transitions, we use optimal matching algorithm and cluster analysis methods to analyze Japanese household registries in the Hsinchu area. The analysis reveals that over eight in ten Taiwanese females aged 15 to 40 in the Hsinchu area got married and started on birth considerably early in their life trajectories; and these could be divided into a five-cluster typology,including the Typical type (71 percent), Widowed type (14 percent), Early death type (4 percent), Remarriage type (6 percent) and Single/Late marriage type (4 percent).

Adoption is a viable and alternate form of family formation, if a couple cannot conceive and give birth to a child. While the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act has been enforced and the legal adoption matching services are available in Taiwan, the data compiled from a report on the registration of adoptive children indicate that adoption of relatives is still preferred and practiced through kinship networks. Using in-depth interviewing data collected from ten families, we analyze how childless families made adoption decisions under the norm of patrilineality within the Chinese family system. The results indicate a strong link between preferred adoption patterns and the family structure. Within stem and extended families, elderly parents not only have the final say on adoption decision but also show a strong preference for the pattern of relative adoption. While a wife has more bargaining power in the conjugal relationship, it is hard to exclude intervention from parents on both sides if her spouse is the oldest son or only child. Concerning the sociocultural importance assigned to children and the patriarchal root of the institution of relative adoption, the significance of conjugal relationship has continuously been downplayed in the Chinese family context. However, there is a shortage of babies because of the decline of fertility in the past few decades. It is also worth mentioning that the presence and status of women in paid employment has improved dramatically, which in turn enhances their decision-making power. Undoubtedly, the pattern of non-relative adoption should become prevalent among childless couples and families eventually.

Gender differences in living arrangements of the elderly have received little attention in the literature. This study examines gender differences in living arrangements of the elderly, by taking gender role attitudes and patriarchal social norms into account, to illustrate the differences not only in propensities of coresidence with children among men and women, but also among those women with various gender role attitudes. Firstly, the result of a multinomial logit model shows that the elderly who tend to live with their homeowner children are females without a spouse, older, and healthier, and those with lower educational attainment. Meanwhile, the homeowning elderly who are Mainlanders, younger, and with a spouse have higher chances of living with their unmarried children than of living without children. This indicates gender differences exist among the elderly in terms of living arrangements in Taiwan. Secondly, adding gender role attitude variables to the model would improve the goodness of fit in terms of specifications of the model, and change the relationship between educational attainment and living arrangements among women. As there are significant associations between gender role attitude variables and elderly living arrangements among women, I suggest that the changing gender role attitudes of Taiwan's women should be taken into account when we assess the applicability of the kin-keeping hypothesis in Taiwan. The results of this study also suggest emerging needs for social support among the elderly who are widowed and economically disadvantaged.

Happiness of the people is an important index of social development. This study focuses on the correlation between social capital and happiness and the comparison of international data. Three data sources are used. Samples are taken from the International Social Survey (ISSP) across 30 countries, providing a total of 49,504 people who are divided into three age groups: the young (20-34 years old), the middle-aged (35-64 years old), and the elderly (over 65 years old). This study uses hierarchical linear modeling to measure the cross-level effects of happiness from different age groups (young, middle-aged, and elderly) in 30 countries. The results find (1) of the 30 countries, there is a significant difference in the happiness level of the three age groups in 25 of these countries. The score of the elderly's happiness is shown to be the lowest out of the three age groups in 20 of the countries. (2) The elderly's happiness is affected the most by country factors, about 14% in the three age groups. (3) National level factors have significant positive effects on the elderly's happiness. (4) Social capital acts as a buffer against the adverse effects of urbanization and educational degree on the mental well-being of the elderly.

No abstract available.