Preference for male children and contraceptive use in Taiwan

Taiwan has an active family‐planning program. Yet the preference for sons is deeply ingrained in the Chinese culture and may discourage women from limiting their family size if they feel they have too few sons. In this study, research problems concerned the relationships between women's stated preferences for the sex of their children, their perceptions of their in‐laws’ preferences for the number and sex of their children, and their use of birth control and choice of birth control methods. It was found that few women verbalized a preference for the sex of children, but the number of boys already in the family was related to the reliability of contraceptive method used later and to the willingness to consider abortion if pregnancy occurred. The desired number and occurrence of additional children related to women's perceptions of their in‐laws’ preferences for boys. The perception of in‐laws’ preferences for girls either related negatively or was not significant.