Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .Quan niệm về giá trị con cái trong gia đình hiện nay”(Trường hợp Thành phố Hà Nội) .
The project was completed in Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics Supervisors: Ph.D Le Thuy Hang Assoc Prof., Ph.D Doan Thi Thanh Huyen Respondent 1: Respondent 2: Respondent 3: The thesis will be defended in front of the Academy-level Thesis Judging Committee, meeting at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics On …….hour……minute, date……month…… years 20… The thesis can be found at: National Library and Institute of Scientific Information, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics INTRODUCTION Urgency of the research topic Over the past 30 years, Vietnam's fertility rate has nearly halved Accordingly, the total fertility rate (TFR) decreased from 3.8 children/woman in 1989 to 2.09 children/woman in 2019, of which the TFR in urban areas decreased sharply, currently reaching only 1.83 children/woman In some urban areas, the socio-economic development has developed, the fertility rate has dropped to low, some places are far below the replacement fertility rate, typically Ho Chi Minh City, which is the leading locality in terms of economy as well as urbanization, but the fertility rate is only 1.36 children/woman According to the Department of Population and Family Planning of Ho Chi Minh City, the situation that many couples not want to have a second child and are afraid to have a second child is common in recent years in the city Hanoi is an urban area with many similarities in socio-economic development with Ho Chi Minh City, which is also having a similar trend when many young couples have only one child or are afraid to have a second child increasingly popular Although currently Hanoi's fertility rate still reaches the replacement level, the risk of fertility decline in Hanoi is always hidden, especially in the city's urban areas, if there are no measures to encourage people to have children When a prolonged low fertility rate is not enough to produce population cohorts (children) that replace their parents for a long time, it will directly affect the rate of natural population growth, and at the same time change population structure, rapidly increasing the proportion of the elderly group Low fertility contributes to accelerated population aging; increasing migration flows (due to low fertility, labor shortage affecting migration policies, increasing migration flows, attracting migrant workers) and putting great pressure on growth economy as well as the social security system of the country In the context of a sharp decline in fertility in our country today, the Prime Minister approved Decision No 588/QD-TTg with the goal of striving by 2030, to increase 10% of the total fertility rate in provinces and cities which has a low fertility rate and ensures the goal of firmly maintaining the replacement fertility rate (2.1 children per woman) across the country The Vietnam Population Strategy to 2030 also identifies this as one of eight important goals (by 2030) that Vietnam needs to achieve For Hanoi, Plan No 74-KH/TU on the implementation of Resolution No 21-NQ/TW, dated October 25, 2017 of Hanoi City on population work in the new situation also identifies the the need to ensure a steady maintenance of replacement fertility is one of the important goals that the city's population work needs to focus on and implement Total fertility rate (TFR) is one of the main measures of fertility and is understood as the average number of live births a woman has over her lifetime In relation to parents' needs for children, Hoffman argues that fertility is the result of purposeful decisionmaking by referring to parental needs that are met by children Parents' perceptions of the value of children shape their procreation and procreation motives The value of children stems from the benefits they bring to the family as well as the costs that the family and parents have to pay for them Different economic, social, and psychological approaches to understanding the specific costs and benefits of having children have revealed their importance to reproductive intentions and behaviors of women and population community Therefore, the study of the value of children in the opinion and assessment of the people is important in suggesting opportunities to maintain the replacement fertility (2.1 children/woman), thereby providing policy solutions to encourage people to have children Hanoi is an area with a rapid urbanization rate, uneven urban distribution (central urban areas, expanded urban areas and rural areas), with a deep stratification in living standards and income of people, diversity in culture, lifestyle of residents In the context of the interweaving between strong urbanization in the central area with profound changes in socio-economic development, culture, people's educational level, the formation of a modern lifestyle in this community, in the beginning of the transition from rural to urban areas of traditional rural areas, how have the values of life, including the value of children in people's views and assessments, changed? How are child values related to people's desire to have children today? What factors influence their conception of the value of their children? Research to clarify these issues will serve as a practical basis to contribute to the development of alternative solutions to maintain the fertility level of Hanoi in the coming time Therefore, the study “The concept of the value of children in the family today (A case study of Hanoi city)” was carried out Research objectives and tasks 2.1 Research objectives Research to identify the concept of children's value for parents in families in Hanoi today, and analyze the influence of parents' personal characteristics on their conception of value of children On that basis, the thesis proposes policy recommendations to encourage people in Hanoi to have children in the coming time 2.2 Research tasks - Systematize the theoretical basis of the value of children - Building a scale of parents' conceptions of the value of their children - Analysis of the current situation of parents' conceptions in Hanoi about the value of their children - Analyze the influence of parents' personal characteristics on their conception of the value of their children - Proposing policy recommendations to encourage people in Hanoi to have children in the future Research subjects, object, scope 3.1 Research subjects The concept of the value of children in the family today 3.2 Research object People between the ages of 18-60 live in central urban areas, urban expansion and rural areas of Hanoi City 3.3 Research scope - Scope of content The topic focuses on studying the concept of child value in families in Hanoi today through parents' assessment of the benefits that children bring to parents and the costs of parents to their children and analyze the influence of parents' personal characteristics on their conception about the value of children - Time range The research period is from June 2020 to March 2022 - Spatial range Research and survey people living in central urban areas, urban expansion and rural areas of Hanoi City Research question 1- How does the concept of children's value to parents in today's families manifest? 2- How does the individual characteristics of parents affect their conception of the value of children? Research hypothesis 1a- The parents' conception of the value of children in the family is reflected in the parents' assessment of the benefits of children and the costs of parents to children, in which, the emotional benefit is the biggest benefit and the economic cost is the biggest one 1b- In the parents' point of view, the emotional value of their children is higher than the economic value of their children 2- Gender, age, area of residence, education and income of parents have an influence on their conception of the value of children Frameworks and variables Political - economic - social context Characteristics of parents: age, gender, area of residence, income, education, occupation, etc Parents' conception of the value of children Emotional Social Economic value value value Emotional benefits Mental cost Social Economic benefits benefits Opportunity Economic cost cost Number of children parents want to have Variables - Independent variable: Demographic characteristics of parents: age, gender, income, education, occupation - Dependent variable: + Parents' conception of the value of children + Number of children parents want to have Methodology To identify the value of children in the concept of parents in Hanoi City, their assessments of the benefits of children and the costs of parents to children in terms of emotional, social and economic as well as the influence of individual factors of parents on the concept of child’s value, the thesis approaches the research object according to the theory of value of children by Hoffman Lois and Hoffman Martin; Cigdem Kagitcibasi; David Lucas and Paul Mayer The theory of the value of children by Hoffman Lois - Hoffman Martin and Cigdem Kagitcibasi show that it is necessary to study the value of children with the full range of material and spiritual values with emotional, social and economic dimensions; at the same time, it is necessary to find out the high and low hierarchical position of the values of children in the current parents' conception From there, it will be determined whether the needs are higher or lower, are they material (economic) or immaterial (emotional, social) needs that parents want to be satisfied more from their children in the context of modern society Therefore, when studying the value of children in the concept of parents, the research will build full scales of children's value on the following dimensions: emotional value, social value and economic value At the same time, the study determines the position of the emotional value, social value and economic value ladder in parents' conception, thereby finding out the hierarchy of parents' needs about children in society modern Approaching the value of children from the theoretical point of view of David Lucas and Paul Mayer requires understanding the benefits of children and the costs of parents to children The value of children is most accurately determined by subtracting the total benefits parents receive from children minus the costs for children Therefore, when building a scale of children's values in the concept of parents on emotional, social and economic aspects, the study builds indicators to measure these values on two dimensions: the benefits of children and the costs of parents to children Approaching the theory of children's value of the above authors, it is necessary to find the relationship of children's values in people's conceptions with their desire to have children, the influence of parents' personal characteristics on their conception of children's values From there, it will be possible to realize the influence of cultural factors on people's desire to have children Therefore, the study will build an empirical model to test the relationship between the concept of child value and the number of children desired by parents At the same time, find out the effects of the individual characteristics of parents on their conception of the value of children? thereby proposing policy solutions to encourage people in Hanoi to have children in the future Scientific and practical significance 8.1 Scientific significance The thesis contributes to clarifying, supplementing and perfecting the concept of children's value as well as clarifying theoretical dimensions when applying research on children's values in Vietnam today The thesis will contribute to clarifying and perfecting the concept of children's value with its component values: emotional value, social value and economic value and is measured on positive and negative dimensions In addition, the study also has the significance of testing applied theories, including the theory of child values by Hoffman, Kagitcibasi, Lucas and Mayer to identify the values (composition) of children, position hierarchical ranking of children's value scales in parents' conception, thereby finding out their children's needs and desires, their difficulties in having children; At the same time, it elucidates the relationship between the concept of child value and parents' desire to have children, the influence of individual characteristics of parents on their conception of child value from which the thesis has a theoretical basis to propose recommendations implying policies to encourage people to have children 8.2 Practical significance The thesis is conducted to contribute to clarifying the current situation of parents' conception of the value of children through their conception of the benefits of children bring and the costs of parents to children, thereby reflecting the needs and desires of the children of parents and showing the difficulties in life that parents may face when having children in the context of modern society On the basis of examining the relationship between the concept of child’s value and the number of children desired by parents, the influence of individual characteristics of parents on their conception of child value, the study proposes a number of recommendations to help population policymakers have more information and reference data in the process of developing population policies, especially appropriate livelihood promotion policies in order to maintain and ensure the replacement fertility level of Hanoi capital in the coming time Research results are used as a practical reference for teaching subjects on population and development, sociology of gender and family New finding of Thesis First, through manipulating the concept of children's values and building a scale of child value conceptions on the positive and negative sides of the values that children bring to their parents; are the benefits of children and the costs of parents for children, the thesis affirms a new approach to children's values - children's values need to be fully received on both sides, positive and negative aspects The positive side of children brings to parents and the negative side is the costs that parents have to pay for their children Thereby determining more clearly the positions of the highest and lower rungs of the child's values to the parents Second, on the basis of description and identification of the benefits that children bring and the costs to children of parents in emotional, social and economic dimensions, the thesis outlines a picture of the value of children in the parents' concept, thereby affirming the highest/lower needs that parents expect to be satisfied from their children; and also point out the biggest/lesser difficulties that parents face when they have children in the context of modern society Third, by building an empirical model of the relationship between the concept of child value and the number of children desired by parents, the study identifies and tests the influence of the concept of child’s value with the desire to have children of parents today Fourth, through analyzing the influence of factors on the parents' personal characteristics on their conception of the value of their children, in addition to the effects of the age factor and the place of residence of the parents to their conception of the value of children; The thesis affirms that the factors of parents' gender, education level, income and current fertility level affect their conception of the value of their children Thereby, the thesis proposes a number of recommendations implying policies to encourage childbearing for people in Hanoi capital in the coming time, contributing to the well implementation of the Government's population strategy to 2030 10 Structure of Thesis Chapter Research problem overview Chapter Theoretical foundations and research methods Chapter The current situation of parents' conception of the value of children in Hanoi City Chapter The influence of parents' personal characteristics on their conception of children's values Chapter RESEARCH ISSUES OVERVIEW “Children value refers to the functions they serve or the needs they fulfill towards their parents.” In relation to human reproductive behavior, tThe child value approach allows a systematic explanation of the variability of reproductive decisions by taking into account individual and cultural factors Child value is generally considered to be the sum of the parents' benefits in childbirth and upbringing minus its costs Thus, determining children's values involves both the positive and negative factors that children bring to parents on the emotional, social and economic dimensions 1.1 Studies on children's emotional value The emotional value of children in the family through research is concretized into the psychological and emotional states of parents obtained from their children It is love, joy, happiness, stimulation, excitement in the activities of caring, nurturing and teaching children to grow up and mature At the same time, there are also emotional stresses, psychological and spiritual pressures that parents have to endure and overcome during the process of raising children Children's positive emotions have been explored by many international and domestic studies, however, children's negative emotions have only been examined in a few international and a few studies Research on psychology and medicine in Vietnam Studies on child value in Vietnam, especially empirical research, have barely mentioned this issue 1.2 Studies on the social value of children Through the overview documents of the thesis, the social value of children to parents emerges in the dimensions of the social benefits brought by children and the limitation of parents' social opportunities due to their children's social interests Children help maintain marriage, lineage, carry on religious traditions in the family and affirm the position of parents in the social community On the other hand, spending time taking care of and raising children has limited the time for parents and their parents' social and community relationships 1.3 Studies on the economic value of children The economic value of children (through the overview documents of the thesis) is present in the dimensions of the material benefits of children to the family and the material costs of the family (parents) for childdren Through studies on child value in Vietnam, children's material interests are valued by the majority of families, especially farming families in the traditional social context, while other expenses Economic costs for children are almost not mentioned by researches 1.4 Research on factors affecting the concept of children's values Through analyzing the factors affecting the concept of children's values mentioned by the researches, it is shown that in each different economic, cultural and social context, there is an emphasis on the component values of the child's value in the concept of different people Accordingly, the economic value of children is valued in the context of society and families with difficult economic conditions (pure farming and traditional), the emotional value of children is dominant in rich families and regions with developed economies (urban and modern) Between the old and young generations, people living in rural and urban areas also have more or less different conceptions of the compositional values of their children Thereby, it shows that the concept of children's value can be influenced by factors of economic and cultural development level of society as well as individual characteristics of parents 1.5 Gaps in the studies Through the literature on child value as shown by the overview thesis, child value has been studied by many studies on emotional, social and economic aspects, but most of the studies have only focused on children deeply exploit the positive influences of children as the benefits that children bring to parents; consider the value of children in the sense that the positive benefits of children bring to parents The negative effects of children on parents as a parent's costs to having children are poorly researched and, for the most part, studies not consider it a success elements required to clearly define the values that children bring to their parents Because, the value of children is most accurately measured through taking the total benefits of children brought to parents minus the costs that parents have to spend when having them Therefore, focusing on research and finding the value of children on both sides, the benefit side of children brings to parents, the cost side that parents need to spend when having children; then consider how the scale of emotional, social and economic values of children is present in the current modern social context, especially in the modern urban context of Vietnam Nam is considered a very new point of the thesis From there, the thesis determines the parents' conception of the value of children, which is necessary to be explored on both sides: the concept of the benefits of children bringing to the parents and the concept of the cost of children parents for children This can also be considered as a very new point of the thesis compared to existing research works in Vietnam on people's conception of the value of children Besides, the thesis also delves deeper into the factors of individual characteristics of the parents, in addition to the influence of age characteristics, residence area (as mentioned in previous works) , then how will the factors formed by the process of modernization of the country, such as: education level, income, living standard of parents, how will affect their conception of the value of their children? Thereby showing the development of the thesis compared to the studies that mentioned the influence of the individual characteristics of parents on their conception of the value of their children 1.6 Dissertation issues that need to be researched 11 thinking in finding the relationship between the concept of child value and the desired number of children births of parents in Hanoi today Kagitcibasi's findings and explanations help the author to identify specific value scales in children's values, which are: emotional value, social value and economic value of children, from there, there are orientations in building indicators to measure these three values in the concept of parents in families in Hanoi At the same time, Kagitcibasi's explanations about the trend of variation between the component children's values in the common child value have theoretical significance, helping the author to have a basis for explaining the change in the position of the ladder of values the composition of children in the current people's conception; At the same time, Kagitcibasi's views on the relationship between child value and fertility orient the author to explore the relationship between the concept of child value and the desire to have children of today's parents The analyzes of positive values are the benefits that children bring to parents, negative values are the costs of parents to children in Lucas and Mayer's theory of child value as the basis orient the author to build indicators measuring positive and negative values of children for parents In which, the children's positive values are measured through the parents' conception of the benefits their children bring to them, the children's negative values are measured through the parents' conception parents about their costs to their children The systematization of concepts and theories of child values analyzed in Chapter is the basis for the author to build specific indicators to measure child values in the conception of parents As well as research to clarify the relationship between the concept of child value and the desire to have children of parents in Hanoi today 2.2 Research Methods The study uses quantitative analysis, survey survey by questionnaire with 660 research samples who are representative of households in central districts, expanded districts and rural areas of Hanoi city; and collected qualitative information through 30 In-depth personal interview with parents in the survey areas The collected information was studied, coded and processed using SPSS 22.0 software The thesis uses the Likert scale for questions about the benefits of children and the costs to children of parents (each concept of children's benefits and children's costs is a variable) and process the information collected by testing the mean values of the variables to find out the child value ladders that are present in the conceptions of parents in families in Hanoi The thesis uses the method of binomial logistic regression analysis to test the relationship between the conceptions of child value and the number of children desired by parents, multivariate logistic regression analysis to detect the influence of parents' personal characteristics on their conception of the value of their children 12 2.3 Overview of the economic - cultural - social context of Vietnam and Hanoi today The socio-economic processes associated with Vietnam's socio-cultural and economic policies are having a great impact on the views, lifestyles and behavior of individuals in society, including family values of the Vietnamese people On the one hand, economic and social changes directly affect the family, posing a need for better support and protection for the family On the other hand, changes in the family have important impacts on the economic, social and cultural spheres In that context, people's conceptions of children's values will also change more or less, there are traditional values about children that may persist and at the same time, many modern conceptions will appear being more open about their children and their roles towards parents and families Regarding fertility change, Hanoi has now reached replacement fertility rate (TFR- 2.1 children/woman, crude birth rate decreases every year), but this rate is not sustainable Implementing the Resolutions of the Party and Government on population work in the new situation, Hanoi city has issued Plans No 74-KH/TU on the implementation of Resolution No 21-NQ/TW, dated October 25, 2017 on population work in the new situation; Plan No 208/KH-UBND dated November 14, 2016 of the People's Committee on controlling the sex imbalance at birth in Hanoi city in the period 2016-2025; Plan No 93/KH-UBND on the implementation of the "Project on health care for the elderly in the period 2017-2025" in Hanoi city until 2025; Plan No 168/KHUBND dated August 28, 2018 of the Hanoi People's Committee on the development of physical strength and stature of Hanoi people by 2030 , with the aim of shifting the focus of population policy from family planning to population and development, constantly improving the quality of work on population, ensuring the maintenance of the replacement fertility rate firmly, bringing the sex ratio at birth gradually to the natural balance; make effective use of the golden population structure; adapting to the aging population; reasonable population distribution, contributing to the rapid and sustainable development of Hanoi City Thus, from the theoretical analysis, it is shown that the value of children exists in all social contexts and can be identified through measuring people's perceptions of positive influences (benefits and benefits) of the children) and the negative (costs to the children) of the children to them Individuals' conceptions of their child-worth may have an influence on their desire to have children, which in turn affects the fertility level of a population However, the value of children is not a constant variable, but changes and exists differently in different social contexts The use of quantitative research methods, surveys (660 samples) and in-depth interviews with parents living in central urban areas, urban expansion and rural areas in the practice that the research implemented to help identify parents' perceptions of how children's values exist in the 13 current context (in 2021); at the same time, by the two-variable and multivariate correlation analysis, it helps the study to determine the influence of parents' personal characteristics on their conception of children's value From the obtained results, it will help the study to realize the current status of parents' conceptions in Hanoi about the value of their children and the effects of the individual characteristics of parents on their children's values their conception of the value of children From there, the study has a basis to propose appropriate recommendations in increasing fertility among the people, contributing to ensuring a steady maintenance of the replacement fertility rate of Hanoi in the coming time Chapter THE STATUS OF CONCEPT OF CHILDREN'S VALUES PARENTS IN HANOI CITY TODAY Researching parents' perceptions of their children's values can be expressed in many ways, but in the content of Chapter 3, we focus on analyzing parents' conceptions of values children's emotional, social, and economic values with dimensions of the benefits children bring to parents and parents' costs to children 3.1 Parents' perceptions of their children's emotional value In the view of parents, they think deeply about the emotional benefits of their children in bringing joy, happiness, motivation and spiritual support to them in life, in which, they found that the emotions obtained from their children the most were joy and happiness (97.1%) Thereby reflecting that this is the greatest emotional need to be satisfied from the children of the parents Explaining this situation according to Hoffman's theoretical approach, parents perceive the greatest emotional benefit from their children to them due to the emotional satisfaction needs of parents and family from their children it is difficult to have other resources (other than children) to replace even though society has developed This shows the rationality in applying Hoffman's theory of child value when studying child value in the modern social context of Vietnam today In the parents' point of view, the emotional benefits of daughters (84.6%) are greater than that of sons (41.7%), thereby reflecting that daughters have more advantages than sons in meeting the following criteria emotional needs for parents, especially in expressing love, sharing affection, care, and care for parents Besides the emotional benefits that children bring to them, they also cause certain emotional stress for them, which is the hard work and worries of parents in the process of educating and teaching their children Being a nice person causes them the most emotional stress (91.2%), followed by stress from worrying about ensuring a healthy and safe life for their children (90.4%) The majority of parents found that they had more emotional difficulties when having children than before (82.5%) The main reason is that 14 they have less time to take care of their children, difficulty in controlling the information their children receive, in understanding the psychology and personality characteristics of their children to choose methods of educating them Fit In the view of parents, raising boys and girls puts them under equal emotional stress 3.2 Parents' perceptions of their children's social values In the parents' point of view, the social interests of their children are the second most important in their concern Thereby reflecting the need to be satisfied by children in terms of society ranked second in the hierarchy of needs about children of parents In which, the need to have children as a link connecting husband and wife/parents, maintaining their stable marriage is the largest (95.6%), followed by the need to have children to maintain the race, connect follow the ancestral line, carry on the family tradition and affirm and strengthen the position of parents in the family and society The son's social benefits in ancestral lineage, family tradition (75.1%) (shown in detail through ancestor worship), bringing the position of parents in the family no longer exists most appreciated by parents Along with the influence of gender equality media and changes in family structure and size towards nuclear increase, the needs of daughters in ancestor worship form and in parents' conceptions surveyed, they found that daughters also have a role and can take on the task of ancestor worship However, boys still have a major/greater role than girls in carrying out this responsibility In the view of parents, their social opportunity costs of having children are limitations on personal freedom and social relationships, on time for themselves and for the marital relationship , an increase in responsibilities to family and relatives In which, they found that when having children, the responsibilities to family and relatives are the biggest limitation (78.5%) that children bring to them In the parents' view, boys and girls equally limit their individual social opportunities 3.3 Parents' perceptions of their children's economic value In the view of parents in Hanoi, children's economic interests are still present, but not as important as children's emotional and social interests In their view, boys not have the only role in old age security and economic support for the family, but girls can also this well With gender equality and women's progress in labor market participation and economic generation, the role of girls has become almost equal to that of boys in providing material support for the family However, due to the influence of the patriarchy with the model of residence in the paternal/in-law's family, the old age welfare benefits of sons are still appreciated by parents over daughters The research results of the thesis continue to confirm the views on the economic benefits of children in many previous studies on children's value, and at the same time supplement and clarify the difference in the value of children sons and daughters to the economic benefits that parents expect from them 15 In the opinion of parents, besides the economic benefits that children bring, in the process of growth and development, they also make them have many economic costs, the biggest of which is the cost of living for education, learning, personal development (94.2%) and the cost of raising healthy and growing children (93.8%) Most parents consider that, for raising sons and daughters, the economic costs for sons and daughters to mature, grow up, develop and fully learn are quite equivalent together In the opinion of parents, there is not much distinction in expenses for sons over daughters or vice versa Thereby, it can be in the level of spending on child rearing and care; in the intention to invest in their children's learning and self-development in parents who are approaching the equality between boys and girls equally Thereby, the results of the study confirm the rationality of applying the theory of Lucas and Mayer in considering economic costs as a component of the economic value of children, and the research results also show that found that, in the modern social context, the economic costs to children are greater than in the traditional social context 3.4 Children's value ladder in parents' conceptions On the basis of manipulating the concept of children's value with component values (emotional, economic, and social values in terms of the benefits brought by children and the costs for children of the parents) mom); child value scale is determined on the basis of taking the total benefits of children received by parents minus the expenses of parents and children; and through the survey and analysis of parents' conceptions of their children's values (Section 3.1; 3.2; 3.3), the study found that there is a difference in the position of the ladder of emotional and social values society and the economic value of children Children's emotional value ladder has the highest position in the parents' concept Children's emotional benefits all received the highest parental consent scores in terms of children's benefits and higher than children's mental costs (Figure 1) ) Children's social value ladder ranks 2nd in the level of parents' concern about the value of their children Concepts of children's social interests have a lower agreement score than conceptions of children's emotional interests, but higher than conceptions of children's economic interests At the same time, the score of parents agreeing with the concept of children's social benefits is also higher than the concept of limiting children's opportunities Children's economic worth ranks lowest in parents' concerns about their children's worth Parents' agreement scores on the concept of children's economic benefits were the lowest among the notions of children's benefits, and lower than those about economic costs to children 16 Chart 1: The position of the child value ladder in the concept of parents 3,62 3,6 3,5 3,39 3,3 3,28 3,17 3,37 3,3 3,02 2,98 2,95 3,16 3,05 2,73 2,66 2,63 3,36 3,35 2,93 2,9 2,5 1,5 0,5 Giá trị cảm xúc Children's emotional benefits Mental cost for children Giá trị xã hội Children's social benefits Opportunity cost for children Có hạn chế khả tạo kinh tế cha mẹ Chi phí kinh tế ni lớn Các trang trải cho học tập lớn Con hỗ trợ kinh tế cho gia đình Con người chăm sóc cho cha mẹ già Con người thừa kế, giữ gìn tài sản cho gia đình Con mang đến trải nghiệm làm cha/mẹ Con nối dõi tơng đường, trì nịi giống Có giúp địa vị cha mẹ gia đình tốt Khi có con, trách nhiệm cha mẹ nhiều Khi có cha mẹ khơng cịn tự trước Khi có con, vợ, chồng khơng có nhiều thời gian dành cho Khi có con, cha mẹ bị hạn chế quan hệ cá nhân Con tạo gắn kết vợ chồng Con tạo thêm động lực sống Con chỗ dựa tinh thần cho cha mẹ Cha mẹ nhiều công sức nuôi dưỡng Cha mẹ vất vả việc nuôi dạy Cha mẹ phải lo toan bảo đảm sống cho Con mang lại niềm vui, hạnh phúc Giá trị kinh tế Children's econimic benefits Economic costs for children In the context of the implementation of industrialization and modernization of the country, the level of development and socio-economic conditions of Hanoi city as well as of families and individuals have increased (shown in the education level of the country) education, income, career level, development level of the residential area through the rural-to-urban shift), the children's value ladders in people's conceptions have changed Children's economic value gradually loses importance, and their emotional (emotional-psychological) value becomes more important instead The weakening of the economic value of children is due to the fact that other resources (besides children) have better taken over the economic support functions for parents and families from children, such as: additional children Labor for family production has been replaced by income from parents' work in the society; The old age care for parents has been shared by the state and society through the social security and welfare system ; at the same time, the economic transition from agriculture (self-sufficiency, selfsufficiency) to a market economy, industrialization and modernization; family economy shifts from production to consumption; the ability of labor resources to meet the main economic needs of the family to the needs of the market economy with the requirements of knowledge, skills and expertise; The economic costs of raising, educating children and training them to become the labor force of society are much larger than the 17 economic benefits they bring to the family, which have contributed to the decline in economic value children in modern society From the instructions in Hoffman's theory, it is found that when the economic value of children decreases, the immaterial value of children does not decrease but increases by the emotional satisfaction needs of parents from children It is difficult to have other alternative resources, even though society has developed, the need to have children to support the material conditions for the family will shift to giving birth to satisfy the non-material needs of the parents This contributes to explain the trend of decreasing fertility which is becoming more and more popular when modern society develops Because in order to meet the material, labor and economic needs of the family (when the family is still a production unit), parents need to have many children; However, in the context of the market economy, when the family becomes the unit of consumption, the economic costs for children are greater than the material benefits they bring to the family, having many children will be an economic burden economical for many parents; At the same time, to meet the emotional needs, to have joy and love from their children, parents who only need to have a few children (1-2 children) also help them to satisfy these things Thereby realizing, the desired needs are satisfied from the children in the parents; Their thoughts about the benefits of children and the costs to children will contribute to the formation in them of different desires to have children 3.5 The concept of children's value and parents' desire to have children Parents' conception of child value is related to their desire to have children Parents with a high conception of the welfare of their children tended to wish to have children more than parents who did not; Meanwhile, in parents with more conception of the cost of children, the desire to have children about their number of children is also less The results of the study only found a slight difference between boys and girls in the parents' desire for the sex of the child they want to have, but from similar research results it has been shown that the concepts of traditional benefits for children: sons are associated with economic benefits, welfare benefits for parents' old age, and daughters are associated with emotional benefits that affect the desire to have a son or daughter Chapter THE EFFECT OF PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS FACTORS OF PARENTS ON THEIR CONFIDENCE OF CHILDREN'S VALUES The concept of child’s value can be influenced by many factors: cultural environment, socio-economic development level of the context, in which, indirect influence of cultural factors is expressed through factors on socio-demographic characteristics of people such as residence area, ethnicity, religion, education level, etc These factors have a direct influence on, shape and change perceptions as well as 18 parents' needs for their children Every society with a complex structure creates within it many subcultures Every society has its own structure and network of social relations, in which there exist many groups of people who are distinguished from each other by territorial boundaries, religion, sex, age, education, income … and each such group has its own subculture Understanding how groups of parents with different social characteristics will have different views and concepts about children's values will contribute to clarifying the influence of cultural factors, specifically subculture - groups of parents with characteristics of age, gender, residence area, education, income - to the concept of child value in the context of modern society, specifically This could be the city of Hanoi today 4.1 The influence of parents' personal characteristics on their perception of the emotional value of their children The factors of parents' age, current fertility, income and area of residence affect their perception of the emotional value of their children Compared with younger parents (under 30 years old), the group of older parents (41 years and older) have more thoughts and concepts about the emotional benefits of their children as well as concerns, the hardships of parents when having children The same holds true for parents with children compared to parents without children The research results reflect that the individual's maturity (expressed at a higher age), the individual's experiences of marriage, family, and children (represented by the current fertility rate) of the individual has formed develop in them deeper thoughts about the emotional worth of their children The factor of living standards (expressed through variables of income and area of residence) of parents has an influence on their children's perception of the emotional value of their children The group of parents with little/no income and highly affected by complicated lives, high cost of living (in urban areas) thought more about the emotional stress of having children Thereby, in the context of modern society, the factor of modernization has influenced and increased parents' thoughts about the mental costs to their children 4.2 The influence of parents' personal characteristics on their conception of the social value of their children In relation to the conceptions of children's social values, the factors of parents' age, sex, area of residence and current fertility rate influence their thoughts on these things Fathers realize more than mothers about the benefits of their children in continuing the lineage and affirming the status of the family and clan; Meanwhile, the social limitations from children are perceived more by mothers than by fathers, especially in increasing their responsibilities to family and relatives This finding contributes to further clarifying the influence of traditional beliefs and cultures on gender roles (male/female), specifically the role of man/father and woman/mother in the family has the influence to form in them different conceptions of the social benefits of children and social constraints from children The residence conditions (rural - urban) of the parents also contribute to the 19 formation of similar differences in their conception of the social benefits of their children and the social constraints of their children The lifestyle that promotes personal freedom of urban parents makes them see that their children limit them the most, but the lifestyle with high community cohesion in the countryside makes them Parents in this area see their children increasing their responsibility to family and relatives the most Parents' experiences with children (fertility factor) (through research results) only affect their conception of the social welfare of their children The more they experience their children, the more clearly they realize the social benefits of their children 4.3 The influence of parents' personal characteristics on their conception of the economic value of their children Factors about the individual characteristics of parents influence their conception of the economic value of their children Gender factors with the roles of each male and female, different husband/wife, and parents in the family have formed in mothers who are more concerned about the economic costs of their children than fathers The different ages of parents contribute to the formation in them of different dimensions of interest in the economic worth of their children In older parents, many traditional ideas and concepts about children's benefits are still preserved, whereas in younger parents, concerns about economic costs for children are still formed in them much attention to the cost of education and nutrition for their children The factor of parents' living standards has an influence on forming in them less or more needs in the desire for children to satisfy their material needs Parents with a higher standard of living have less expectations of their children meeting their material needs Parents with low levels of education living in rural areas are also heavily influenced by the traditional concept of children's material interests in their thinking In contrast, parents in urban areas, affected by a more complex and diverse life in raising and educating their children, are more concerned with the economic costs of their children The parents' experience of children, the number of children born of current parents influence their perception of the extent and type of economic costs that they need to pay to raise their children Teach your children to grow up Thus, through the two-variable and three-variable correlation analysis of personal characteristics, parents with their conceptions of their children's values found that their thoughts and conceptions about their children's values were affected influenced by their personal characteristics In which age, standard of living (indicated by education, income and area of residence) and experiences of marriage, family and children influence their emphasis on the interests of society as well as concerns about the cost of children Thereby reflecting, the individual characteristics of parents contribute to forming in them different needs that they want to be satisfied from their children Through the overview documents of the thesis, it shows that the age factor and the area of residence of the parents have a strong influence on their thinking about the value 20 of their children From the correlation analysis of how the individual characteristics of parents in Hanoi today affect their conception of children's values, the study found that, in addition to factors about age, area of residence; factors such as education level, income (which is a reflection of the country's modernization) as well as the current fertility level (experience of marriage, children) of parents are also affected influence their perception of the value of their children This shows that the concept of children's values always changes in all contexts and in different social groups and at the same time reflects the indirect influence of cultural factors on concepts of the values of children CONCLUSION On applied research concepts and theories First, through manipulating the concept of child values with component values, including; economic value, emotional value and social value of children, along with measures of the benefits of children to parents and costs of parents to children, and analyzes of Parents' conception of child value (chapter 3), the research results confirm a new approach on child value in the study of child value in Vietnam That is, in addition to the one-way approach (positive aspects that children bring to parents) to measure the value of children in the concept of the research object, the value of children needs to be approached and measure on both dimensions (including the positive and negative factors that children bring to them) to be able to fully identify and correctly arrange the children's value ladder This has an important meaning (helps to be more profound and accurate) in explaining as well as finding and determining the relationship between children's values and the procreation behaviors of individuals Second, through the analysis of parents' conceptions of the benefits their children bring to them, the research results of the topic confirm the rationality in applying research theory on child value Hoffman's work in the context of modern Vietnamese society From Hoffman's theoretical approach, through measuring parents' perceptions of their children's interests, the research results of the topic have confirmed the desired needs of parents to be satisfied parents from children, in which the need for emotional satisfaction from the children of the parents is the greatest need and no other resource outside the society can replace it Third, through a 2-dimensional approach and measurement, the benefits that children bring to parents and the costs that parents need to pay for them (Chapter 3), findings and explanations about the the decline of the economic value of what in the modern social context is due to a shift from the benefits of children to the costs of children in parental priorities (Section 3.4), resulting in The research results of the topic confirm that the theoretical views of Lucas and Mayer are reasonable and can be applied in the study of children's values in modern Vietnamese society today 21 About experimental results Firstly, through surveys and in-depth interviews with parents' conceptions, the results of the study outline a picture as a pyramid of children's values in the concept of parents with diverse conceptions of parents about the emotional, social, and economic value of their children In which the children's emotional value ladder is at the top of the pyramid - the highest, the children's social value ladder is in the middle of the pyramid and the children's economic value ladder is at the bottom tower - lowest The results of the study answer research question 1, "How does the value of children in parents' conception manifest?" and confirmed hypothesis 1b of the study that "in the parents' conception, children's emotional value is higher than their children's economic value" Second, by determining the position of the ladder of child values in the parents' conception, the research results show the needs (most / least) desired to be satisfied about their children surname In which the need to satisfy the emotions of happiness, love, and joy of parents from their children is the greatest need and there is no substituted resource to satisfy this need; Parents' social needs such as maintaining marriage, keeping family traditions, affirming parents' position in the community are the second most important needs in the pyramid of needs about the children of the parents; Children's economic satisfaction needs such as family economic support, parents' old age insurance (security) are the lowest needs that parents expect to be met by their children In each component value of children, the study analyzed and pointed out the parents' conception of the positive and negative aspects that children bring to their parents Therefore, in addition to reflecting the needs that parents want to satisfy from their children, the analysis of the study about parents' perceptions of the costs that they need to spend when having children which reflects the difficulties (most/least) they face when having children in the context of modern society In which, parents realize that the burden of economic expenses for their children to study and develop themselves, take care of and raise their children are the biggest difficulties that parents face when having children; psychological and spiritual pressures and tensions in the process of raising children to be good people are the second biggest difficulties that parents notice when they have children; Social difficulties are those that are less difficult than economic costs and emotional stress, but they find that when they have children, the responsibility for children, the family is larger, and to fulfill They not have time for themselves and their personal social relationships These results answer question of the study "how does the value of children in the parents' conception manifest?" and affirms hypothesis 1a of the study that "parents' conception of child value is expressed through their thinking about the benefits of their children and the costs to children, in which, the emotional benefits of children is the greatest benefit, and the economic cost of children is the greatest cost”, the results of 22 the study have discovered and confirmed some conceptions of child value in the continuation and preservation of traditional child values that are still preserved in the minds of a part of the society parents in Hanoi today That is, the concept of children's welfare benefits, although it has declined in the context of modern society (than in the traditional), in families of the younger generation of parents, is still highly appreciated in the ministry part of the family with older parents (from 50 years of age or older), rural families; The social benefits of children are still imprinted in the perception of people in rural areas (than in urban areas) Fourth, besides the traditional values of children, the research results of the topic have discovered that some modern values of children have formed and tend to be promoted in the concept of parents mother in Hanoi This modernity is reflected in the concept of parents who are much more open-minded in promoting the role of daughters in the transmission of religious traditions, supporting the family economy; the social value of boys is no longer as strong as in traditional social contexts; Girls are more dominant than boys in meeting the emotional needs of their parents Thereby, it shows that the gender gap in valuing the social values of boys more than girls because the influence of traditional culture has narrowed in the context of modern society, specifically the case of Hanoi City - the capital of the country Fifth, the results of correlating the characteristics of the parents' residence area with their conception of children's values show that, between parents living in rural and urban areas of Ha Noi City There are differences in the concept of children's values, notably the notions of economic benefits and limiting social opportunities of children Parents living in rural areas appreciate the economic benefits of their children, feel more responsible for their families, and their children are larger than urban parents In contrast, urban parents have fewer conceptions of their children's economic interests, and find the greatest limitation of their social opportunities is limited personal freedom This is explained by the nature of community cohesion in the countryside is higher than in the city and the lifestyle that promotes individual freedom is higher in the city than in the countryside However, the research results also forecast a different trend in the concept of children's value of parents in urban and rural areas of Hanoi Since then, it has suggested many new ideas in research on the influence of culture and lifestyle of the community on the concept of individual's child value Sixth, through analyzing the influence of parents' personal factors on the concept of children's values, the research results confirm the individual characteristics of parents, namely the age of children , gender, area of residence, income, education, current fertility level of parents have an influence on their conception of the value of children Thereby, the research results answered question of the study and confirmed the hypothesis of the topic that "Gender, age, area of residence, education and income of parents have an to their conception of the value of children” 23 RECOMMENDATIONS For the Party, State and agencies, units and socio-political organizations Firstly, it is necessary to increase communication about children's interests, especially children's emotional benefits in bringing life values to individuals and families, especially the values of children a happy life, full of joy in the love of children for their parents Secondly, in formulating and planning solutions for student promotion, special attention should be paid to issues related to economic costs for children of parents, especially for parents in low-income families ages 18 to 40 years old In which, the costs of children's education, the costs of medical care need to be supported to reduce in many forms In addition, the Party and State also need to have tax and price reduction incentives for care and nutrition products for young children and children in the process of development, such as milk, vitamins, etc nutritious food in order to contribute to reducing the cost of raising children for parents, thereby also indirectly creating conditions for people to improve the quality of their children Thirdly, the measures to promote life should pay attention to each gender (father/mother), in rural and urban areas with different forms and contents of impacts For fathers, it is necessary to increase communication about the social benefits of their children On the contrary, mothers need solutions to minimize their concerns about limiting personal freedom as well as social concepts and standards about their responsibilities to the family when having children Birth promotion measures for parents living in rural areas need to pay attention to communicating the economic benefits of their children to them, whereas for urban parents, it is necessary to increase communication communication reduces their concern about the emotional costs of having children Fourth, in formulating and planning student promotion policies, it is necessary to pay attention to the income aspect of parents with different measures Low-income parents need social support with them when they have children With these subjects, they can support child birth allowance, tuition fee waiver for their children from kindergarten to high school, insurance allowance, and living expenses for their third child to 18 years old For low-income families with many children, from the third child onwards, the entire university tuition fee will be supported For high-income parents, attention should be paid to influencing them about the emotional benefits of their children as well as reducing their notions that limit social opportunities when they have children such as: personal freedom and increased responsibility to family, relatives… 24 For the system of schools, educational and training institutions It is necessary to include propaganda about the value of children into the contents, programs and methods of population and reproductive health education inside and outside the school Propaganda contents should be appropriate to each school level and age, and ensure the correct and systematic formation of knowledge and skills on population and reproductive health in the young generation For families and individual parents Firstly, it is necessary to raise awareness about the value of family life with the benefits that children bring, especially in giving parents a life full of experiences of love, about happiness, about the formation of personal responsibility for family and children Second, parents (especially potential parents) need to prepare skills in caring, nurturing, educating and teaching their children through classes on knowledge and skills education the ability to build a family or the parents themselves learn and acquire knowledge from individual learning means to contribute to preparing the mind for a life when having children, in order to reduce the pressure mental stress, emotional stress when having children Third, parents need to have economic preparation, (indirectly increase their income) when they want to have children to be proactive about spending in care and ensuring nutrition for their development , in investing in education, raising adult children From there, it will reduce the psychological pressures of parents when raising children, and at the same time will contribute to better care for children in each family, improving the population quality of the whole society LIST OF SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF THE AUTHOR WAS ANNOUNCED Nguyen Thi Lan (2021), “Children's values in population and family research", Journal of Theoretical Activities, No 8(181), pp.53-57 Nguyen Thi Lan (2021), “Promoting the value of children in caring for the elderly in Vietnam”, Journal of Political Theory, (525), pp.89-95 Nguyen Thi Lan (2022), “Communication on child values in the context of declining fertility in Vietnam”, Electronic Political Theory Journal, at http://lyluanchinhtri.vn/home/index.php/thuc-tien/item/4292-truyen-thongve-gia-tri-con-cai-trong-boi-canh-muc-sinh-shun-jam-o-viet-nam.html Nguyen Thi Lan (2022), "Solutions to promote life from children's approach to parents' values in today's family", Journal of Political Science, (07), pp.57-63 ... trải cho học tập lớn Con hỗ trợ kinh tế cho gia đình Con người chăm sóc cho cha mẹ già Con người thừa kế, giữ gìn tài sản cho gia đình Con mang đến trải nghiệm làm cha/mẹ Con nối dõi tơng đường,... mẹ gia đình tốt Khi có con, trách nhiệm cha mẹ nhiều Khi có cha mẹ khơng cịn tự trước Khi có con, vợ, chồng khơng có nhiều thời gian dành cho Khi có con, cha mẹ bị hạn chế quan hệ cá nhân Con. .. RESEARCH METHODS 2.1 Concepts and theories of child value research The thesis manipulates concepts, including: family concept, value concept, child value concept In which, the concept of child value