Effects of Son Preference and Sociodemographic Determinants on Parity Progression in Bangladesh

Abstract

This study aims to determine whether son preference exists in Bangladesh and to identify the different socio-demographic factors that have affected women’s movement from one parity to another. The analysis was carried out on 17,006 women selected from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey of 2017/18 who at the time of interview met the criteria of being married and had at least one living child. The probability of women’s movement from parity to parity was assessed using the binary logistic regression method. The effect of variables such as the education of women and their partner’s education, work status of woman, partner’s profession, age at first marriage, place of residence, religion, access to mass media, wealth index, and the administrative division were important determinants of the parity progression of women. The study found that parity movement is also associated with the number of living sons. At parity 2 and parity 3, women with no sons were more likely to move to the next parity than those with at least one son. Moreover, having a higher-level education, living in an urban area, and having access to mass media were found to be significant factors in terms of decreasing the odds of women’s movement from parity to next parity. Additionally, respondents from the Chittagong and Sylhet divisions were more likely to have subsequent births than those from other divisions.