The Male Sibling Effect: Understanding Son Preference Among Nigerian Women

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  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3. Family and Gender

Abstract

Son preference shapes fertility behavior and resource allocation in many Nigerian families, but little is known about how childhood sibling composition influences women’s desire for sons. Drawing on Social Learning Theory, this paper tests whether the number of brothers a woman grew up with is associated with her ideal number of male children. Using women’s data from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (n = 40,628), I estimated a weighted negative binomial regression model predicting respondents’ reported ideal number of sons. The main exposure is the respondent’s number of brothers; models adjust for age, education, marital status, region, religion, household wealth, employment, place of residence, and complex sampling design. The results show a clear positive relationship between the number of brothers a woman has and her ideal number of sons. Women with more male siblings tend to report higher desired numbers of sons. This pattern remains even after accounting for differences in age, marital status, education, region, wealth, place of residence, and employment status. The finding suggests that women who grow up in families with more brothers may internalize family gender compositions as a reference for their own fertility ideals.
Keywords: Fertility, Fertility Preferences, sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria, Family Demography

Author

• Patrick Okooboh, University of Maryland-College Park