Abstract

Introduction: A skewed sex ratio is harmful to the health and welfare of women in India and is perhaps the more alarming,concern for population sustainability.,Objectives: (1) To assess the attitudes of mother-in-law and her sons toward preferring a baby boy over a girl child.,(2) To find out fertility behavior in context to the above-mentioned choices. (3) To explore contributing factors that could be,attributed to the attitudes of mother-in-law and sons toward a baby boy preference.,
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was done for 6-month duration (i.e., July–December 2014) in the,rural area of Berasia block of Bhopal district. A total of 307 families were included in the study.,Result: The findings of the study suggest that families of both the generations those who had two male children in,their first two birth order continued child bearing to increase their family size and same was the finding in the families of,mother-in-law and son whose first two children were female, but parity progression was more in proportion in this group.,Association between mother-in-law’s education and son preference was found statistically significant (<0.0001), that is,,higher the illiteracy or lower school education, higher was the preference for baby boy.,Conclusion: Male child preference makes family to opt for larger number of children in order to ensure at least one male,child in family, thus increasing the family size. Education is the most important factor in reducing male child preference.