Effects of Son Preference on Contraceptive Use in Bangladesh

Son preference resulted from traditional beliefs, social customs, and economic benefits, including support of aging parents, and is widespread not only in Bangladesh, but also in many Asian and African countries, that are believed to have low levels of contraceptive use. To carry out the study task effectively and efficiently, the study extracted and analysed data about 16,858 currently married women aged 15-49 years out of 17,863 ever-married women from a nationally representative 2014 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) Data set. The contraceptive prevalence rate for respondents having only daughters was found to be only 48.4, which was remarkably lower than the national average (62.4) because of son preference. The study revealed that son preference was a variable regardless of the place of residence and socio-economic background. Son preference was higher among illiterate, non-working women and women over 40 years of age. Moreover, Muslim women have a stronger son preference than their Non-Muslim counterparts.