Is There Still Son Preference in the United States?

Blau, Francine D.; Kahn, Lawrence M.; Brummund, Peter; Cook, Jason

doi:10.3386/w23816

Cited by 23 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Parents of first-born girls had slightly fewer children than parents of boys, (which is in line with the recent study of Blau et al 2017), and of particular relevance to our study, the divorce rate for parents with first-born girls was 0.16 percentage points higher (1.04 per cent in relative terms) than the rate for parents with first-born boys. Note: Authors' estimates of average characteristics of couples with first-born sons and daughters born in 1995-2015.…”

Section: Is the First-born Child's Gender Random?supporting

confidence: 77%

Teenage Daughters as a Cause of Divorce

Kabátek

Ribar

2017

SSRN Journal

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In our paper, we are analysing the link between gender of children and the divorce risks faced by the parents. In other words, we ask whet her parents of girls divorce more often than parents of boys.This question has received considerable attention in the academ ic literature. Several American studies have found that families with first-born girls are slightly more likely to divorce than families with first-born boys. Other American studies have however challenged this finding, and there is no evidence from other developed countries showing that such a relationship exists. Thus, the quest ion remains largely unanswered.In our paper, we leverage the Dutch administrative data to overcome major limitations of the previous studies, and we show that there is indeed a link between the child's gender and the divorce risks faced by the parents: The Dutch families with daughters are more likely to divorce than families with sons. This relationship however does not hold universally. Up to the age of 12, the gender of a child has no influence over the parents' divorce risks. It is only when the children become teenagers that the parents of girls start to face higher risks of divorce. We find that throughout the teenage years, parents of first-born girls face 5% higher risks of divorce than parents of first-born boys. This effect peaks at the age of 15, when the risks faced by parents of girls become almost 10% higher than the risks faced by parents of similarly-aged boys. In the following years, the excess risks decline, and eventually disappear when the children turn 19. The same age-specific associations are found among second-and third-born daughters, although the magnitudes of the effect are lower.We show that our results cannot be explained by son preference of Dutch parents, or by a host of other previously-postulated mechanisms such as the non-random assignment of gender to children, or higher financial costs of daughters. Instead, our study suggests that the increased odds of divorce should be attributed to the relationship strains between parents and their teenage daughters. This claim is supported by an analysis of a large survey of Dutch households, which shows that parents with teenage daughters are more likely to disagree about the way their child should be raised, and they report lower satisfaction with their life and the quality of family relationships compared to parents with teenage sons. Teenage daughters themselves tend to report worse relationships with their fathers.Additional analyses of the administrative data emphasize the role of the relationship between the father and his daughter. A particularly interesting result comes from an exercise in which we split the sample into two groups, distinguishing between fathers who grew up with sisters, and fathers who did not. This split yields a contrasting set of results: Fathers who grew up without sisters are subject to a pronounced increase of divorce odds when their daughters become teenagers, whereas the fathers with sisters are not. Remarkably, the fat...

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Section: Is the First-born Child's Gender Random?supporting

confidence: 77%

Teenage Daughters as a Cause of Divorce

Kabátek

Ribar

2017

SSRN Journal

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“…For example, econometrics research has identified several differences between U.S. parents of girls versus boys, including a higher divorce rate and differential monetary investment in families [ 70 ]. Other research suggests subtle gender preference may vary by nativity, with first- and second-generation American immigrants showing a greater preference for boys [ 71 ]. It is thus plausible that cultural factors that track with race/ethnicity or nativity could have contributed to the difference in the magnitude of association that we observed between our diverse cohorts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fetal sex and maternal postpartum depressive symptoms: findings from two prospective pregnancy cohorts

et al. 2021

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Background Fetal sex is known to modify the course and complications of pregnancy, with recent evidence of sex-differential fetal influences on the maternal immune and endocrine systems. In turn, heightened inflammation and surges in reproductive hormone levels associated with pregnancy and parturition have been linked with the development of perinatal depression. Here, we examined whether there is an association between fetal sex and maternal depression assessed during the prenatal and postnatal periods. Methods The study included two multi-ethnic, prospective pregnancy cohorts that enrolled women from prenatal clinics in the Northeastern United States between 2001 and 2018. Maternal depressive symptoms were measured during the prenatal and postnatal periods using the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS), and newborn sex was reported by the mother following delivery. We used logistic regression to examine associations between fetal sex and maternal depressive symptoms (EPDS > 10) during the prenatal period only, postnatal period only, or both periods versus no depressive symptoms during either period. We considered both unadjusted models and models adjusted for a core set of sociodemographic and lifestyle variables. Results In adjusted models using PRISM data (N = 528), women pregnant with a male versus female fetus had significantly greater odds of depressive symptoms during the postnatal period compared to women without depressive symptoms during either period (odds ratio [OR] = 5.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.93, 14.21). The direction of results was consistent in the ACCESS cohort, although the findings did not reach statistical significance (OR = 2.05, 95% CI = 0.86, 4.93). Significant associations were not observed in either cohort among women with prenatal symptoms only or women with prenatal and postnatal symptoms. Conclusions Male fetal sex was associated with the onset of depressive symptoms during the postnatal period.

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“…For example, econometrics research has identi ed several differences between U.S. parents of girls versus boys, including a higher divorce rate and differential monetary investment in families (70). Other research suggests subtle gender preference may vary by nativity, with rst-and second-generation American immigrants showing greater preference for boys (71). It is thus plausible that cultural factors that track with race/ethnicity or nativity could have contributed to the difference in the magnitude of association that we observed between our diverse cohorts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Fetal sex and maternal postpartum depressive symptoms: findings from two prospective pregnancy cohorts

Cowell

Colicino

Askowitz

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Fetal sex is known to modify the course and complications of pregnancy, with recent evidence of sex-differential fetal influences on the maternal immune and endocrine systems. In turn, heightened inflammation and surges in reproductive hormone levels associated with pregnancy and parturition have been linked with the development of perinatal depression. Here, we examined whether there is an association between fetal sex and maternal depression assessed during the prenatal and postnatal periods.Methods: The study included two multi-ethnic, prospective pregnancy cohorts that enrolled women from prenatal clinics in the Northeastern United States between 2001 and 2018. Maternal depressive symptoms were measured during the prenatal and postnatal periods using the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) and newborn sex was reported by the mother following delivery. We used logistic regression to examine associations between fetal sex and maternal depressive symptoms (EPDS>10) during the prenatal period only, postnatal period only, or both periods versus no depressive symptoms during either period. We considered both unadjusted models and models adjusted for a core set of sociodemographic and lifestyle variables.Results: In adjusted models using PRISM data (N=528), women pregnant with a male versus female fetus had significantly greater odds of depressive symptoms during the postnatal period compared to women without depressive symptoms during either period (odds ratio [OR] = 5.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.93, 14.21). The direction of results was consistent in the ACCESS cohort, although the findings did not reach statistical significance (OR = 2.05, 95% CI = 0.86, 4.93). Significant associations were not observed in either cohort among women with prenatal symptoms only or women with prenatal and postnatal symptoms.Conclusions: Male fetal sex was associated with the onset of depressive symptoms during the postnatal period.

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Is There Still Son Preference in the United States?

Cited by 23 publications

References 53 publications

Teenage Daughters as a Cause of Divorce

Teenage Daughters as a Cause of Divorce

Fetal sex and maternal postpartum depressive symptoms: findings from two prospective pregnancy cohorts

Fetal sex and maternal postpartum depressive symptoms: findings from two prospective pregnancy cohorts

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