Child-Sex Preference and Factors That Influenced Such Choices among Women in an Obstetric Population in Nigeria

Abstract

Son preference is a global phenomenon that is influenced by personal, conjugal, socioeconomic and cultural factors. Objectives: This study was designed to determine child-sex preference of women among an obstetric population in Nigeria, and to obtain the reasons for such choices. Materials and Methods: A 15-item questionnaire was used to obtain information from the respondents on their child-sex preference and factors that influenced such preferences. Results: Four hundred and fifty-three women with a mean age of 29.07 + 4.70 were surveyed. Most (428, 94.5%) were married, 448 (98.9%) were Christians, 404 (89.2%) were booked attending antenatal care in the centre, and 289 (63.8%) had attained post-secondary level of education. The vast majority 294 (64.9%) of the mothers preferred to have male children in the index pregnancy. About half 223 (49.2%) of the mothers would stop trying to have their preferred child-sex after 4 attempts. The majority (171, 37.7%) of the mothers made their child-sex preference in order to attain gender balance in the family, while 129 (28.5%) of them made their preference to ensure inheritance. Mothers whose reasons for child-sex preferred were "for inheritance", "to satisfy husband", and "to consolidate marriage" significantly preferred sons, p = 0.000. Conclusion: This study has confirmed Nigeria as a patriarchal society, where women prefer to have male children as against daughters, although, the trend was towards the attainment of child-sex balance in the composition of offspring in the family. Mothers' preferences for sons in this study were significantly influenced by patriarchal considerations.

Gender Preference for a Third or More Children: Evidence from Indonesia

“…Also, the preferences of mothers with either only sons or only daughters differ greatly from those with mixed-gender offspring. This result is consistent with those of several studies showing that gender preference affects fertility (Hand and Kohler, 2000; Yaya and Osanyintupin, 2008;and Etoh and Ekanem, 2016). Gender preferences for children affect fertility because of higher levels of investment by parents and non-economic values, such as maintaining family lines (Schultz, 1997).…”

Predictors of Family Size Among Men in Urban Slums of Enugu, Southeast Nigeria: A Cross Sectional Study

“…Majority of respondents who have all males presented with family sizes less than six in contrast to respondents who presented a mixedsex distribution of children; family size above six. This shows that the desire to keep having children increases with the failure to achieve the desired sex preferences and vice versa [9].…”

“…This would lead to a decrease in the standard of living, childhood nutritional deficiency and subsequent malnutrition, lack of education, overcrowding, prostitution, street hawking, increased poverty levels, and increased under 5 morbidity and mortality [8]. Large family size has a negative effect on the health of the mothers as well [9].…”

Contextual Determinants of Children Ever Born Among Women of Reproductive Age in Selected Southwest State in Nigeria.

“…They observed that women in the region with greater income, living in urban centres and with higher education have lower fertility. Further studies showed that demand for children for reasons such as old age security, son preference, status symbol, security against widowhood, gender choice & living children make-up and security against divorce were some of the factors that have been sustaining high fertility in the region (Inyang-Etoh, & Ekanem, 2016;Lambert & Rossi, 2016;Adebowal & Palamuleni, 2015;Westoff, Bietsch & Koffman, 2013 ;Izugbara & Ezeh, 2010). Goujon, Lutz and Samir (2015) opined in their study that the way out of this fertility challenge is for the government to empower women and girl child by improving their health, enhance their human capital through increased spending on education and skills and provide them with greater market, social and decision making power at family, community and national level.…”