Family values, filial piety, traditional gender roles, and marriage-fertility behaviour in Taiwan

While Taiwan faces ultra-low fertility amid cultural modernisation, the association between family values and marriage-fertility behaviour remains contested. Using data from the 2022 Panel Study of Family Dynamics (N = 5,634), this study offers a cross-sectional snapshot of how filial piety, marital normativity, and traditional gender role attitudes are associated with marital status and fertility outcomes. Results reveal a bifurcated age pattern: authoritarian filial piety and marital obligation are weaker among younger age groups, while affective-economic values remain resilient; traditional gender role attitudes show only modest age variation. Marital-normative values are strongly associated with marriage, higher fertility ideals, and earlier childbearing, whereas authoritarian filial piety exhibits limited or negative associations. Interaction analyses indicate gender- and age-conditioned patterns: authoritarian filial piety shows a stronger negative association with marriage among men, while marital normativity is associated with earlier childbearing primarily among women. These findings refine Second Demographic Transition accounts by highlighting selective value persistence rather than wholesale cultural erosion. The results suggest that Taiwan’s fertility decline occurs within a context where enduring cultural commitments coexist with structural barriers, generating an aspiration-behaviour gap. Policies should consider both cultural orientations linked to family formation and institutional constraints that may prevent their realisation.