International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | June 2019 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Page 2538 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Dadwani RS et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2019 Jun;6(6):2538-2543 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Gender preference and its impact on families: a cross sectional study Roma S. Dadwani, Hetal T. Koringa*, Girija P. Kartha INTRODUCTION Despite tremendous economic progress made through liberalization and globalization, gender preference for children remains a major issue in any society throughout the globe. 1,2 Gender preference for children of particular sex can have an impact not only on fertility but also on mortality and sex ratio. Natural sex ratio (males for every 100 females) at birth is 105 which is slightly biased towards the male child to balance the sex ratio of total population as males are at higher risk of death due to natural and external causes(accidents, injuries etc.). 3 Preference for male children have been documented in many studies from several countries of the world. 4-7 The study from European countries showed no gender preference in France and Poland, mixed gender preference in Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland, and female child preference in the Czech Republic. 8 Preference for balance family with one male child and one female was reported in US. 9 In patriarchal society like India, socioeconomic, cultural and emotional factors are strongly in favour of male child. 10-13 Women whose last child was boy had completed their family earlier than those whose last child was girl. 14 Strong preference for male child leads to skewed sex ratios, female feticides, higher child mortality for girls and discrimination at each stage of life even after birth. 10,15,16 According to UNFPA report, in India nearly 0.46 million girls were missing at birth annually during 2001-2012. 17 Sex selective abortions were high among ABSTRACT Background: Despite tremendous economic progress made through liberalization and globalization, gender preference for children remains a major issue in any society throughout the globe. The aim of the study was to determine the gender preference for children and its impact on family among study population. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out between October-2013 to December-2013 in the urban (Ratanpar) and rural (Khodu village) field practice area of C U Shah Medical College Surendranagar, Gujarat. Total 377 study participants were selected by using systematic random sampling. Data was collected using pre designed and pre tested questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS. Results: Out of total study population, about 78.8% were completed their family and 21.2% had desire for child in near future. Those who had completed their family, nearly two third of them were blessed with both male and female child (62%). Among those who had desire for child (n=80), about two fifth (41.2%) wished to have male child. At parity one, 52% had desire for only male child as next child and also strong preference for male child was observed at parity two and above among those having only female children. Conclusions: Study revealed that most of the couples wish to have at least one son in the family hence perception of parents towards desired gender of child to be born must be gravitated in favor of daughters. Keywords: Gender preference, Cross-sectional study, Daughters, Son syndrome Department of Community Medicine, C.U. Shah Medical College, Surendranagar, Gujarat, India Received: 19 March 2019 Accepted: 08 March 2019 *Correspondence: Dr. Hetal T. Koringa, E-mail: koringahetal1@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20192318