Determinants Of Son Preference

There has been a steady increase in China's sex ratio at birth since the 1980 s. Unbalanced sex ratio at birth is a major structural issue which has a bad effect on the population development of China. Related researches say son preference is one of the main reasons for high sex ratio at birth. With the data from “2006 Chinese Social Survey”(CGSS2006), this paper focuses on a comprehensive study on the determinants of son preference. The article describes the distribution of son preference among Chinese residents by generating cross-tabulation and adopts the 2-Logistic regression model to analyze the affecting factors and the gender, Urban-Rural and regional differences about these factors. The study shows structural and culture factors is more influential on son preference. The impact of personal and family factors decrease to varying degrees or even disappear when structural and culture factors are considered. Specifically, rural residents' son preference is stronger than urban residents'; Easterners' son preference is stronger than Midwesterners'; Chinese traditional culture plays a decisive role on son preference. Besides, son preference is also under the influence of gender, marital status, education and household income. The paper suggests that better education and less influence by traditional culture are good solutions to realize balanced sex ratio at birth.