男嬰偏好對台灣地區已婚有偶婦女生育動機與生育行為的影響 Impacts of Son Preference on the Fertility Motivation and Behavior of Married Women in Taiwan
中文摘要
性別偏好是影響生育動機與生育行為的一個重要因素。雖然台灣地區近年之生育 率持續下降，但是性別偏好的現象始終是存在的，並未隨著生育率的下降而消 失。過去的夫妻以增加生育子女的個數來得到所偏好的性別的子女，隨著醫療科 技的發展，父母得以在產前藉由人為篩選的方式獲得偏好的子女性別，因而造 成新生兒的性別比例異常偏高的現象。
本研究的目的為探討性別偏好對台灣地區已婚有偶婦女生育動機與所生育之新 生兒的性別的影響。使用第七次與第八次「台灣地區家庭計畫與生育力調查」之
資料，篩選已有至少一個小孩的已婚有偶婦女共1,529 人為分析樣本。研究結果
發現婦女的生育行為受其本身對子女的性別偏好及家庭的影響十分明顯。對男孩 偏好程度越高、與公婆同住的婦女，其生育動機越高；另外，由樣本婦女生育之 新生兒性別比例較自然比例偏高和性別的偏好與子女數偏好對婦女生育之新生 兒性別有顯著影響的結果，可以間接推論有人工篩選性別的現象存在。
英文摘要
Sex preference is one of the important factors that influence women’s fertility motivation and behavior. Although the fertility rate in Taiwan has dropped off in recent years, the preference for son of parents still can be observed in the society today. In the past, most married couples keep making babies until the preferred sex was born. With the advancement of medical sciences and technologies, parents today can choose the sex of children they like by man-made selection in prenatal period.
Because of that, the sex ratio of newborn babies in Taiwan has been tilted.
The purpose of this research is to probe into the impacts of son preference on the fertility motivation and behavior of married women in Taiwan. The primary data were compiled from a national survey on knowledge of, attitudes toward, and practice of family planning and reproductive health among married women in Taiwan, selected the married women who have at least one child to be the data for analysis. The results show that the women’s fertility motivation and behavior have been significantly influenced by their sex preference for children. Women who have son preference or live with parents-in-law have higher fertility motivation. Besides, based on the high sex ratio of newborn babies among the sample population and the result that the preference of sex and the number of children influence on newborn gender, the phenomenon of prenatal sex selection does exist can be proposed.
