Household Composition, Extended Kinship and Reproduction in Taiwan: 973-1980

There has been a decrease in the proportion of young couples beginning married life living with the husband's parents, and the period of co-residence has become shorter for members of recent cohorts. Nevertheless, a large majority of couples still do begin married life living with the husband's parents and most parents live with at least one married son. Couples who do not live with the parents are usually linked to them by visiting and remittances. The persistence of traditional family forms is greater than expected in view of the very rapid pace of other social and economic changes and the almost universal practice of modern contraception. Traditional familial forms are especially prevalent among rural-farm and less educated strata. The longer the period of extended co-residence, the higher is desired and actual family size and the smaller the proportion using contraception for spacing.