Child Sex Composition, Parental Sex Preferences, and Marital Outcomes: Evidence From a Matrilineal Context.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The authors study matrilineal settings in rural Malawi, a southeast African country, to assess if women experience better marital outcomes in the presence of daughters and if so whether daughter preference plays a role.

Background

A provocative finding in family sociology is that couples with sons experience better marital outcomes relative to those with daughters. Sociologists contend that these marital benefits are attributable to the gender system fostering greater closeness between fathers and sons, a preference for sons, or economic, cultural, and social incentives for fathers to invest more in unions that have produced sons. Extrapolating these arguments beyond son-inspired marital benefits in patriarchal settings suggests that the reverse process-daughter-in

SUBMITTER: Smith-Greenaway E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11323038 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature