BEIJING - The surging price of education has become the major cause of conflict between Chinese husbands and their wives, a recent survey has found.

Expensive education ranked as one of the top three difficulties facing Chinese families, with low incomes and nursing a sick family member the other two major concerns, a survey released by the All-China Women's Federation over the weekend found.

The survey polled 10,000 households in 10 provinces nationwide from last October to this April. The results were disclosed on May 15, the 17th International Day of Families.

"Families are the cells of society. So a harmonious family links individual happiness and the development of the country," Chen Zhili, president of the federation, said over the weekend.

Establishing a harmonious family is important for people's livelihood, given that China has about 374 million households, Chen said.

Of those polled, 46.6 percent said unaffordable education expenses were the major source of conflict. Similarly, 43.1 percent said poverty and 32 percent said striving to care for the sick were the major problems.

Rural families were the most sensitive about economic conditions, the survey found.

The rate of rural families worried about the high costs of education was 13 percent higher than that of urban ones, the poll found.

Similarly, the number of rural people polled who believed they were suffering poverty was 5.4 percentage points higher than their urban counterparts.

Household duties were cited as the more severe source of conflict in rural areas, the poll found.

On the contrary, people in cities complained more about crowded housing and ill family members they had to take care of, the survey showed.

Mo Jun, 58, has been unhappy about living with his parents-in-law. The parents of Mo's wife fell ill last year and moved to his new apartment so that they could receive better care from their daughter.

"My own parents have not lived here after I bought the apartment," Mo said.

"But I don't want to quarrel with my wife because we do not have any other choice."

By this January, the number of divorces made up 50.9 percent of the total number of marriages registered in Beijing, which means that one out of every two married couples might end up divorcing, local media reported.

The divorce rate has risen tenfold since 2001, latest statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed.

In the survey, 69.4 percent of the respondents said they would not forgive their spouse for having extramarital affairs. Twenty-eight percent could not tolerate their spouse for not sharing housework, the poll showed.

More than 25 percent of those polled cited family violence and indifference as "behaviors that cross the line", the poll showed.

More than 56 percent in the survey also said government policies for supporting the family are far from enough, while 20 percent of those polled do not know there were any such support policies.

The country's social security system since its reform and opening up has been aimed at helping the disadvantaged, said Zhang Xiulan, a professor with Beijing Normal University.

That is not enough, Zhang said. "The social policies should not be constrained to correcting defects. It should be based on supporting people's development," Zhang said in a recently published article.

Most families need assistance in education, employment and healthcare, the survey showed. Fifty-four percent of its respondents said they are willing to get home education counseling.

More than 42 percent of those polled said they have trouble with unemployment and 42 percent of the respondents said they want community medical care.

CHINA DAILY

(China Daily 05/18/2010 page2)