Preference for Sex of the Child Among Pregnant Women

Abstract

One hundred and fifty-two randomly selected pregnant women were examined and followed up by interviews and psychological tests during pregnancy and after parturition. The present paper is focused upon factors which determine the woman's preference for the sex of her expected child. It was shown that women who already have one or more children generally wanted the expected child to be of the opposite sex to her youngest child. Thus, the main part of the study was limited to eighty-one nulliparous women. Associations were found between the woman's preference for the sex of the child and several factors such as the sex of her own siblings and her position among them, her education, intelligence and degree of field-dependence indicating immaturity and lack of autonomy. Several of the findings presented refute the common supposition that nulliparous women generally want to give birth to a son, and that the arrival of a son is more satisfactory. Women wishing for a son were found to be somewhat more field-dependent than other women and somewhat more often reported that they had experienced a range of mental symptoms before the current pregnancy. Women wishing for a boy also reported more mental symptoms during the post-partum period. Moreover, those women who gave birth to a son reperted more symptoms at this time than those who gave birth to a daughter, and paradoxically the most affected were those who had wished for a son and had had their wishes fulfilled. The arrival of a daughter therefore seems to be equally satisfactory to the mother, at least as measured by the criteria used in this investigation.

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