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Socio-demographic Variations in the Sex composition and Preferences of Aberdeen families

Summary In contrast to early studies of parental preference for the sex of their offspring which showed an over-riding son preference in terms of both the expressed desires for a male infant and of the sex ratio of completed families, more recent studies show that the desire for a balance of sexes outweighs the preference for a particular sex. A recent attitude survey in the UK (Dunnell, 1979) confirms this and also claims to find no difference in the pattern of preferences between social classes. This article examines family building patterns among Aberdeen families over the last 20 years in the light of these earlier findings. The analysis shows first that considerably more families continue to have a third child after two children of the same sex than after one boy and one girl, thus supporting the proposition that parents prefer a balanced sex composition. Second, a multivariate analysis of the data shows in contrast to other findings that this tendency to continue to have a third child does vary according to social class.