Son Preference and Contraceptive Use among Different Parity Women in Northern India

Researchers in India and elsewhere have also noted that fertility declines over the past decade or so have intensified pressure on women to act to achieve their desired family sex composition within the confines of a smaller family size. This study examines the hypothesis that families in Uttar Pradesh want more sons than families elsewhere, and also examines how the sex composition of women’s current parity influences both fertility desires and full range of reproductive actions women may take to realize them including temporary contraception and sterilization. The analysis is based on NFHS-III dataset using 1457 and 1794 currently married women for parity two and three respectively.
The result indicates son preference go beyond a singular preference for male children. Families may want one daughter, very few want more than that and most definitely want at least one or two sons. Women with this combination are 42% less likely to report having wanted another child relative to those with three girls. women with two or more boys and no girls or those with two girls and one boy are significantly and considerably less likely to want another child (64% and 84% less likely, respectively.