Sex Composition of Children and Future Fertility Intentions

Aradhana Singh

In the phase of fertility transition, the gendered composition of family has become the most important demographic phenomenon for determining future fertility intentions in South Asia in general and India in particular. This paper involves analysing the trends of future fertility intention by the given sex composition of the existing children and the effect of sex composition of children on the future fertility intention by using successive rounds of NFHS. This study observe that the number of women who desire to have an additional child is four times higher among those who have two daughters (26.78%) than those women having two sons (6.13%). The chances of having additional birth are higher (61.7 percent, p<0.00) among women with female children than the male children (50.08). The TFR is also found to be greater in the presence of son preference than no preference in majority states of India with a few exceptions.

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 Presented in Session 10. Fertility, Family Planning, Sexual Behavior & Reproductive Health 2