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Learning to Value Girls: Balanced Infant Sex Ratios at Higher Parental Education in the United States, 1969-2018.

ABSTRACT: Infant sex ratios that differ from the biological norm provide a measure of gender status inequality that is not susceptible to social desirability bias. Ratios may become less biased with educational expansion through reduced preference for male children. Alternatively, bias could increase with education through more access to sex-selective medical technologies. Using National Vital Statistics data on the population of live births in the United States for 1969-2018, we examine trends in infant sex ratios by parental race/ethnicity, education, and birth parity over five decades. We find son-biased infant sex ratios among Chinese and Asian Indian births that have persisted in recent years, and regressions suggest son-biased ratios among births to Filipino and Japanese mothers with less than a high school education. Infant sex ratios are more balanced at higher levels of maternal education, particularly when both parents are college educated. Results suggest greater equality of gender status with higher education in the United States.

SUBMITTER: Rauscher E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9791645 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Learning to Value Girls: Balanced Infant Sex Ratios at Higher Parental Education in the United States, 1969-2018.

Rauscher Emily E Song Haoming H

Demography 20220601 3

Infant sex ratios that differ from the biological norm provide a measure of gender status inequality that is not susceptible to social desirability bias. Ratios may become less biased with educational expansion through reduced preference for male children. Alternatively, bias could increase with education through more access to sex-selective medical technologies. Using National Vital Statistics data on the population of live births in the United States for 1969-2018, we examine trends in infant ...[more]

PMID: 35575584

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Project description:BackgroundEducation is expected to bring about positive behavioral changes which could lead to improved health behaviors. Parental education is a primary determinant of child health and development. However, some evidence showed inverse associations between high parental education and recommended infant and young child feeding (IYCF) in Bangladesh. How the association of parental education differs with specific IYCF components has not been reviewed. Therefore, the role of parental education on optimal IYCF practices in Bangladesh appears to be inconclusive. The objective of this review is to summarize how parental education is associated with IYCF practices in Bangladesh.MethodThis review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline. A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Google Scholar. Record searching, study selection, and data extraction was performed using Endnote online and Covidence tool, respectively. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used for quality assessment of the included studies.ResultsOut of 414 initial hits, 34 studies were included for this review. Of the included studies, 32 were cross-sectional, one was a randomized controlled trial, and one was a retrospective cohort. Most of the studies (n = 24) were nationally representative whereas 10 studies had populations from district and sub-district level. Included studies considered different IYCF-related indicators, including breastfeeding (n = 22), complementary feeding (n = 8), both breastfeeding and complementary feeding (n = 2), both breastfeeding and bottle feeding (n = 1), and pre-lacteal feeding (n = 1). Parental education was found to be positively associated with complementary feeding practices. However, the role of parental education on breastfeeding, in general, was ambiguous. High parental education was associated with bottle-feeding practices and no initiation of colostrum.ConclusionPublic health interventions need to focus not only on non- and/or low-educated parents regarding complementary feeding but also on educated mothers for initiation of colostrum and proper breastfeeding practices.Trial registrationThis systematic review is registered to PROSPERO ( https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/ ) with registration ID: CRD42022355465.

Dataset Information

Learning to Value Girls: Balanced Infant Sex Ratios at Higher Parental Education in the United States, 1969-2018.

Publications

Learning to Value Girls: Balanced Infant Sex Ratios at Higher Parental Education in the United States, 1969-2018.

Similar Datasets

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