Parents’ Social and Financial status as determinants of Child Gender Preferences: a study of Igbos in Lagos West Senatorial District, Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

The phenomenon of child gender preference is not new; it has existed for centuries. In fact, in the last few decades, many studies have been conducted on it, particularly in South Asia and North Africa. In Nigeria child gender preference has seldom been examined with keen emphasis on the social and financial factors. Thus, this study examines the social and financial factors underlying child gender preference among the Igbo people in Lagos West Senatorial District. The study uses the survey method to execute the research agenda. Multi-stage random sampling was used to pick respondents for the survey. The symbolic interactionism theory was used to explain the prevalence of gender preference for children in the study location, while chi-square was used to test the two formulated hypotheses that centre on socio-financial factors and child gender preferences. The paper found that there is a significant relationship between education and parental preference for the gender of their children. The higher the education of the parents, the lower the parental preference was for a particular gender. Also, the study finds that income is significantly related to parental preference for the gender of their children. The lower the income and wealth of the household, the higher the parental preference to have a male child. The study concludes that efforts should be made to raise the educational level of people and to ensure that the government tackles poverty aggressively in the society.