The Impact of Son Preference on Fertility Behavior in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Weeam S. Hammoudeh, Brown University

A large proportion of studies on son preference have focused on low fertility settings in East Asia, and especially in the skewed sex ratios of birth resulting from the practice of sex selective abortion. This paper examines the impact of son preference on individual fertility behavior in a high fertility setting, the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) where anecdotal evidence indicates that fertility behavior is influenced by son preference. This paper examines the impact of son preference and sex distribution of children on fertility behavior in the oPt,in terms of timing of fertility and progression to subsequent parity levels using data from birth history calendars from a national health survey conducted in 2006. Parity-specific event history analysis was conducted. The results of this study show that after accounting for socio-demographic characteristics, women with more sons were less likely to move on to a subsequent birth all parity levels.