Influence of son preference on the contraceptive use and fertility of Sri Lankan women

Abstract

The effect of moderate son preference on family size is analysed using data from the 1982 Sri Lanka Contraceptive Prevalence Survey whose respondents were followed-up in the 1985 Sri Lanka Contraceptive Survey. Reported reproductive intentions on desire for additional children were not always reflected in overall contraceptive use. Complicating factors were the use of modern and traditional methods and the role of induced abortion. Longitudinal observations of the 1982-85 period relating women's individual reproductive behaviour to their intentions show no consistent behavioural difference between those with and without sons. However, at any given parity, the proportion reporting at least one additional child born during the intersurvey period was higher among those women who intended to have at least one additional child than among those who wanted to stop childbearing. This analysis suggests that son preference finds expression more through reproductive intentions than through actual fertility behaviour in the follow-up period.

PIP: In Sri Lanka, a study using data from the 1982 and 1985 Contraceptive Prevalence Surveys was conducted to examine the effect of moderate son preference on family size, as documented by the 1975 Sri Lanka Fertility Survey. At parity one, women who, in 1982, did not want more children and had no sons were more likely to give birth in the period between the 2 surveys and their counterparts who had a son (41.7 vs. 32%). On the other hand, women who had at least 3 children, at least one of whom was a son, and, in 1982, did not want more children were more likely to progress to the next parity than those with no sons (39.6% for 1 son and 33.9% for 2 sons vs 19%), suggesting that the fear of having another daughter exceeded in importance the desire for having a son. Moderate son preference was also evident among women who had at least 4 sons and (44.5% of these women had become sterilized vs. 28.6% of women who had at least 4 daughters. Regardless of parity, women who did not have at least one son were less likely to use modern contraception than those with at least one son (especially at = or parity 4, 36 vs 56% in 1982). At parity 2, the proportion of women who had one son and one daughter were more likely to use contraception than were those whose sex composition was unbalanced (69.9% vs 65.8% for no sons and 56.7% for 2 sons). Nevertheless, no consistent reproductive behavior existed between women with and without sons. Use of modern and traditional family planning methods and the role of induced abortion, which was illegal in Sri Lanka and thus unreported, made it difficult, however, to analyze the association between fertility preferences and reproductive behavior. These findings indicated that reproductive intentions revealed moderate son preference more so than actual fertility.