Son Preference and the Reproductive Behavior of Rural-Urban Migrant Women of Childbearing Age in China: Empirical Evidence from a Cross-Sectional Data.

Xiaojie Wang,Wenjie Nie,Pengcheng Liu

doi:10.3390/ijerph17093221

Abstract

Son preference has been shown to influence the childbearing behavior of women, especially in China. Existing research has largely focused on this issue using cross-sectional data of urban or rural populations in China, while evidence from the rural-urban migrant women is relatively limited. Based on the data of China Migrants Dynamic Survey in 2015, we used logistic regression models to explore the relationship of son preference and reproductive behavior of rural-urban migrant women in China. The results show that the son preference of migrant women is still strong, which leads women with only daughters to have significantly higher possibility of having another child and results in a higher imbalance in the sex ratio with higher parity. Migrant women giving birth to a son is a protective factor against having a second child compared to women whose first child was a girl. Similarly, the effects of the gender of the previous child on women’s progression from having two to three children showed the same result that is consistent with a preference for sons. These findings have implications for future public strategies to mitigate the son preference among migrant women and the imbalance in the sex ratio at birth.

Highlights

A strong preference for sons over daughters is common in East and Southeast Asia [1,2], notably in China
Most of the migrant women chose to have their first child in the hospital (89.36%), while 9.4% and 1.24% of migrant women chose to bear their first child at home or in a private clinic, respectively
Our findings showed the patterns of association between the sex composition of existing children and subsequent childbearing behaviors that are consistent with the preference for sons, which leads women with only daughters to have significantly higher intentions of having another child and results in a higher imbalance in the sex ratio with higher parity

Summary

Introduction

A strong preference for sons over daughters is common in East and Southeast Asia [1,2], notably in China. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2018, China ranked dead last among 149 countries in terms of “sex ratio at birth”. This is the result of many factors, such as the Confucian cultural tradition, the socioeconomic system, and gender ideology. When there is a difference between the number of children allowed by the family planning policy and the number of children expected by the family, for individuals with a strong preference for boys, there is an incentive to conduct gender selection under the policy conditions or ignore the normal fertility limitation to have more children until a son is born

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion