Preferences for Male or Female Children: Traditional or Affectional?

A questionnaire was administered to 380 university students, about equally divided between males and females, to determine the respondent's preference for a child of a particular sex. When respondent's were asked to cite preference if they could have only 1 child, 92% of the males and 66% of the females preferred their only child to be a boy. Although the response was overwhelmingly in favor of a boy, males and females did differ significantly at the .0001 level. When respondents were asked to cite sex preference for first child, 62.1% of the males and 58.6% of the females perferred a boy, while 33.5% and 35.2% of the males and females, respectively, said it made little difference to them. When those who took the egalitarian position were forced to state a preference, most of the males wanted a boy and the females wanted a girl. When the desired sex compostion of future families was analyzed, over 55% wanted an equal number of boys and girls. More than 34% wanted a predominantly male family in contrast to only 6% who preferred a predominantly female family. As hypothesized, Catholic and Jewish respondents showed a stronger male preference than Protestants. In addition, significantly fewer Protestants had a definite preference for the sex of their first child. Neither the aspirational level of the students nor the satisfaction of their affectional relationships with pa rents, siblings, and peers contributed to the explanation of sex preferences. 4 areas of further study are suggested: 1) a more realistic cultural evaluation of some current psychiatric concepts--particularly the Oedipus complex; 2) the treatment accorded children by parents with strong sex preferences; 3) the relation between marital role conceptions and sex preference of children; and 4) the implications for the sex ratio when male sex preference is reinforced by medical technology which can predict and perhaps even control the sex of a child.