Sexual infidelity among the married in China

Sexual infidelity in China has undergone a rapid increase in recent decades. Despite much speculation, social forces that help to prompt such increase have yet to be identified. Drawing on data from the Chinese Private Life Survey, coupled with the perspectives of attitudinal and institutional changes, we examine social determinants of marital infidelity that may reveal potential mechanisms of its diffusion. We find that more liberal attitudes toward extramarital sex, greater sexual dissatisfaction, and lower marital satisfaction were all positively associated with the likelihood of marital infidelity. Results also show that institutional factors such as personal income, living apart from one's spouse, and urbanity influenced the practice of extramarital sex. Taken as a whole, both attitudinal changes toward sex, love and marriage, and institutional changes as a result of social transformation may play a role in determining the rise of sexual infidelity in China.