Parental support in financial and childcare domains plays a key role in child-rearing in contemporary China, yet its effects on fertility remain contested. Meanwhile, eldercare obligations compete with childcare within the 4-2-1 family structure. This article reconceptualizes fertility intentions as embedded in reciprocal intergenerational exchanges of support. Using data from the 2022 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), the analysis distinguishes downward support from parents and upward support provided by adult children, and examines variation by gender and kinship. Logistic regression results show that neither form of support is significantly associated with fertility intentions once demographic factors are controlled. However, a patrilineal pattern emerges, with support from the husband’s family more positively associated with fertility than support from the wife’s family. These findings suggest that parental support operates less as a fertility incentive than as a structural necessity within a welfare-deficient context.
C. Zhong (Mon,) studied this question.