Children’s sex and the happiness of parents

Margolis, Rachel and Myrskylä, Mikko (2016) Children’s sex and the happiness of parents. European Journal of Population, 32 (3). pp. 403-420. ISSN 0168-6577

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Abstract

Demographers are interested in sex preferences for children because they can skew sex ratios and influence population-level fertility, parenting behavior, and family outcomes. Based on parity progression ratios, in most European countries, there are no sex preferences for a first child, but a strong preference for mixed-sex children. We hypothesize that mixed-sex preferences also influence parental happiness. Parents’ disappointment with a second child of the same sex as the first could have negative effects for parents and children. We use longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Study to examine parental happiness by the children’s sex and analyze whether these effects differ by parent’s sex, age, nativity, and educational attainment. The results are only partially consistent with predictions from parity progression ratios. As expected, parental happiness does not depend on the sex of the first child. We find weak evidence suggesting that two boys decrease happiness, but the findings are not consistent across German and British data or across subpopulations. Moreover, two girls do not reduce happiness. Although sex preferences influence fertility, they appear to have little impact on happiness, perhaps because of unobserved positive factors associated with having same-sex children.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.springer.com/social+sciences/population...
Additional Information:	© 2016 The Authors © CC BY
Divisions:	Social Policy
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Date Deposited:	19 Aug 2016 11:11
Last Modified:	17 Oct 2024 16:10
Projects:	336475
Funders:	European Research Council
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/67519

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