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PubMedDate not supplied

History of son preference and sex selection in India and in the west.

In the history of mankind, there was a time when women dominated the world. In due course of time, as the patriarchal societies evolved, the status of women gradually declined. Sons were preferred to daughters. In India, the Brahmin community promoted such customs and rituals, which gave more and more importance to sons eg. Lighting the funeral pyre of the father was told to be a pre-condition for salvation of his spirit. Similarly, in western civilization also women were considered to be weak. In consonance with such a mind-set man has been trying various techniques for sex-selection since antiquity eg. for acquiring a son choosing a special day, time and posture for sexual intercourse, special diet, charms and amulet and prayers etc. In Vedas also punsavana karma has been described as a technique for acquiring a son. Apart from these techniques, female infanticide has also been used as a way to create a male dominated, son-worshipping society. On development of the technique of ultrasonography as an example of progress of science and technology, man has devised a new way of killing females in womb itself, which has resulted in continuous decline in female: male sex ratio in India. To stop this, Indian Govt. promulgated PNDT Act 1994. But considering the widely prevalent practice of use of various regimen of sex-pre-selection by people as well as unscrupulous medical practitioners, Govt. of India has amended this Act (2002). Still, as authors have found in one of their studies, sex-selection drugs are being used widely by north Indians for getting a son. Here, it should be noted that sex-selection methods are being used in west also. But the perspective is different. There, it is not used for female feticide or for acquiring a son. Rather, it is more an effort towards demonstrating the control of man over the NATURE.

Abortion, Induced↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Sex preference and the value of sons and daughters in Nepal.

Sex preference and the specific value of sons and daughters to parents in Nepal are examined using rural and urban survey data from 1979. Ideal family size among all respondents was, on average, three children, with two sons and one daughter the preferred sex composition for about 90 percent of all respondents. Among those who reported current contraceptive use, the mean number of living sons was higher than the mean number of living daughters for all respondents. Most couples have at least one son before they adopt contraception; respondents had, on average, three to four births before adopting contraception. Sons are preferred to daughters by Nepalese parents mainly for socioeconomic and religious reasons, as opposed to the economic reasons reported elsewhere in many developing societies. The findings indicate that the economic motive for having both sons and daughters may be weakening in Nepal, but that a preference for sons does exist.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

The transmission of racial attitudes from fathers to sons: a study of blacks and whites.

This study examines relationships between racial attitudes of fathers and sons. The sample includes one hundred white fathers and sons and an equal number of black fathers and sons. Three measurements of social distance were undertaken. The fathers indicated their own racial attitudes, while sons indicated their perceptions of their fathers' racial attitudes, as well as their own. The findings indicated that sons of both races perceive their fathers to be more prejudiced than they actually are. There is a relationship between fathers' perceived racial attitudes and sons' attitudes in the white sample, but black fathers appear to have no influence on the racial attitudes of their sons. It appears that adolescents' perception of parental attitudes is more relevant to socialization than actual attitudes. With regard to racial attitudes, black families appear to be less influential in the socialization process.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2028

Parental son preference in childhood and sex differences in the risk of cardiovascular disease in middle-aged and older adults.

INTRODUCTION: Sex differences in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk are examined through biological and clinical factors, with less attention to early-life social exposures. This study examined associations of childhood parental son preference with CVD risk, sex differences, and mediation by modifiable risk factors. METHODS: This cohort analysis included China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study participants aged ≥45 years without baseline CVD. Parental son preference was assessed retrospectively in 2014; incident CVD was self-reported physician-diagnosed heart disease or stroke through 2020. Sampling-weighted, community-clustered Cox models estimated adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% CIs. Sex was prespecified as an effect modifier; mediation by 13 risk factors used inverse-odds-ratio weighting. Data were collected from 2011 to 2020 and analyzed from 2025 to 2026. RESULTS: Among 8,079 participants (mean age, 57.5 years; 4,216 women [52.2%]), 1,820 (22.5%) reported parental son preference. Son preference was associated with higher CVD risk overall (aHR 1.23 [95% CI 1.04, 1.46]) and among women (aHR 1.25 [95% CI 1.03, 1.53]); among men, the estimate was 1.16 (95% CI 0.87, 1.56), with limited heterogeneity by sex (ratio of aHRs 1.06 [95% CI 0.72, 1.58]). Among women, risk was concentrated in the highest paternal (aHR 1.47 [95% CI 1.14, 1.90]) and maternal (aHR 1.50 [95% CI 1.12, 1.99]) preference categories. Modifiable risk factors mediated 5.8% (95% CI 1.9%, 9.7%) of the association among women, mainly through socioeconomic and psychosocial factors. CVD risk was highest with both son preference and high risk-factor burden overall (aHR 1.97 [95% CI 1.43, 2.73]) and among women (aHR 2.23 [95% CI 1.61, 3.10]). CONCLUSIONS: Parental son preference was associated with higher incident CVD risk, with the largest estimates in the highest paternal or maternal categories among women. Modifiable risk factors explained a modest proportion, supporting life-course cardiovascular prevention that considers sex-differentiated childhood environments alongside risk-factor modification.

cardiovascular disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Daughters increase longevity of fathers, but daughters and sons equally reduce longevity of mothers.

Reproduction is energetically and physiologically expensive, and an individual investing resources into producing offspring should suffer costs such as deterioration in health condition and possibly shorter life span. Since the energetic and nutritional demands of pregnancy and breastfeeding render reproductive costs much higher in women than in men, women with a large number of children should show signs of deterioration in condition, while men with large families should not. However, whether reproductive costs reduce longevity in women is still questionable, and in men this issue has not been adequately addressed. In addition, since sons are energetically more expensive to produce than daughters, having sons should have a more pronounced negative impact on maternal longevity than having daughters. Here we document a striking disparity in the impact of children on the life span of mothers and fathers in a Polish rural population. We show for the first time that number of daughters was positively related to a longer life span of their fathers, increasing their longevity on average by 74 weeks per daughter born, while number of sons did not have a significant effect on paternal longevity. In contrast, in women, the number of daughters and number of sons reduced maternal longevity and did so to the same extent, on average by 95 weeks per son or daughter, indicating that for women, the costs of having sons and daughters are similar.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Non-genetic benefits of mate choice: fecundity enhancement and sexy sons.

I compared reproductive success (lifetime number of fertilized eggs) as a function of mate choice among females of the stink bug, Nezara viridula L. (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae). 'Choosing' (C) females were placed with one of two males on alternate days. CI females chose between inexperienced males while CR females chose between males previously rejected by CI females. 'Non-choosing' (N) females were placed with the same male every day. Non-choosing NI, NR and NA females encountered, respectively, inexperienced males, previously rejected males, or previously accepted and mated males. Reproductive success was highest for CI females, showing direct selection on mate preferences. Reproductive success did not differ between CR and NR females, indicating that male quality, not the act of choosing a mate, affects fitness. CI females preferred males with longer antennae and their fecundity (lifetime number of eggs) was correlated with male antenna length, consistent with antenna length as an indicator of male ability to transfer nutritive sperm produced in paired harlequin lobes of the testes. Harlequin lobes were smaller in rejected than chosen males. In second-generation mate choice trials, sons of NR females competed well against sons of NA females but not against sons of CI females. This suggests that non-genetic paternal contributions that decline with prior mating account for the attractiveness of sons because sons of CI and NA females shared the same fathers. Sons experiencing mating success came from larger eggs and egg size was greatest for CI females, perhaps as a consequence of paternal nutritional contributions. Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2000

Individual mares bias investment in sons and daughters in relation to their condition.

The Trivers-Willard hypothesis (TWH) predicts that a mother will treat a son or daughter differently depending on her ability to invest and the impact of her investment on offspring reproductive success. Although many studies have investigated the hypothesis, few have definitively supported or refuted it because of confounding factors or an inappropriate level of analysis. We studied maternal investment in sons and daughters in feral horses, Equus caballus, which meet the assumptions of the TWH with a minimum of confounding variables. Population level analyses revealed no differences in maternal behaviour towards sons and daughters. When we incorporated mare condition, we found that sons were more costly to mares in good condition, whereas daughters were more costly to mares in poor condition, although no differences in maternal behaviour were found. However, since the TWH makes predictions about individual mothers, we examined investment by mares who reared both a son and a daughter in different years of the study. Mares in good condition invested more in their sons in terms of maternal care patterns, costs to maternal body condition and costs to future reproduction. Conversely, mares in poor condition invested more in daughters. Therefore, with an appropriate level of analysis in a species in which confounding variables are minimal, the predictions of the Trivers-Willard hypothesis are supported. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1983

Sequential patterning of emotional interaction in families with a schizophrenic son.

In 30 families with a schizophrenic son conjoint family discussions which had been generated by Strodtbeck's "Revealed Differences Technique" were analyzed on the strength of the "Relationship-Scale" developed by Riskin and Faunce. All three members of the family triad (two parents and son) proved to be more hostile and rejecting than their parallels in a control group of families whose sons had been admitted because of an acute surgical condition. However, no significant difference could be ascertained in the sequential patterning of interaction assessed by means of time-series analysis. In both family groups Bernoulli processes predominated, i.e. there was no dependence between the sequentially recorded speech units. A 2-year follow-up of the schizophrenic patients showed a contradictory pattern of results. In families with re-hospitalized sons there was only a slight and statistically insignificant tendency towards more negative relationships but the sub-groups of families containing a schizophrenic son differed clearly on the level of sequential data; more families with re-hospitalized sons showed autoregressive (morphogenetic) or moving average (morphostatic) processes.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Event-related potentials in alcoholic fathers and their sons.

ERPs were recorded during a simple color discrimination and a more difficult visual continuous performance task (CPT) from three father-son (n = 15) pair groups: recovering alcoholics with a family history of alcoholism and their sons (A+), nonalcoholics with a family history of alcoholism and their sons (NA+), and nonalcoholics with no family history of alcoholism and their sons (NA-). The sons, aged 8 to 12, had not begun drinking or using other drugs. Groups were matched on age, education and socioeconomic status. There were two principal findings. Compared to nonalcoholic groups, both A+ sons and fathers exhibited increased latency and decreased amplitude of P3 for the difficult task, but not for the easy task. This result helps to explain previous inconsistencies in the literature, and strengthens the suggestion that one indication of a vulnerability to develop alcoholism is an abnormal P3, when elicited by an appropriate task. Additionally, A+ fathers had more negative amplitudes for a late slow wave in both tasks, suggesting electrophysiological consequences of long-term alcohol abuse.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Predictors of father-son communication about sexuality.

Examining the factors that influence adolescents' sexual behaviors is crucial for understanding why they often engage in risky sexual behaviors. Using social cognitive theory, we examined predictors of father-son communication about sexuality. Fathers (N=155) of adolescent sons completed a survey measuring 12 variables, including self-efficacy and outcome expectations. We found that (a) son's pubertal development, father's sex-based values, father's education; father's communication with his father, outcome expectations, and general communication accounted for 36% of the variance in information sharing communication and (b) son's pubertal development, outcome expectations, general communication, and father-son contact accounted for 20% of the variance in values sharing communication. Study findings can aid professionals in designing guidelines for programs to promote father-son general communication and sex-based communication.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Listening to caregiving sons: misunderstood realities.

In-depth interviews with 30 sons actively involved in caring for a parent with dementia expand the understanding of sons' caregiving experiences. The within-group analysis revealed common themes that emerged from the narratives--duty, acceptance, taking charge, common emotions, and work flexibility--as well as common issues--loss, sibling relationships, role reversal, coping strategies, and positive outcomes. The interviews also generated a typology of son caregivers that included such types as the dutiful son, the son who goes the extra mile, the strategic planner, and the son who shares the care.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1980

Congruence of personality assessments within families with a schizophrenic son.

Following the phenomenological approach to interaction in psychiatrically disturbed families a personality questionnaire ('Giessen Test') was used to assess the views three family members (father, mother, son) had of themselves and of each other. These views may be regarded as quite stable results of interaction processes, so that conclusions about family interaction patterns may be drawn from the level of concordance of any two of them. Comparisons were made between families in which a son had been hospitalized for the first time with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and those in which a son had been hospitalized for surgical treatment, n = 30 in each category. The psychiatric patients did not on the whole give distorted personality descriptions. But in the index families the relationship between father and son was found characteristically different from that in the control families. This fact is interpreted as a reaction of the father to the deviant behaviour of the son, who did not conform with the male sex-role expectations of the father. The father as it is could not then identify with his son as a father usually does and perhaps necessarily should. The answers of the mothers partly confirm this conclusion. With regard to the parental dyad, the findings suggest that the fathers' needs for reciprocal consideration are not met by their wives.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

How accurately do adult sons and daughters report and perceive parental deaths from coronary disease ?

OBJECTIVES: To describe how adult sons and daughters report and perceive parental deaths from heart disease DESIGN: Two generation family study. SETTING: West of Scotland. SUBJECTS: 1040 sons and 1298 daughters aged 30-59 from 1477 families, whose fathers and mothers were aged 45-64 in 1972-76 and have been followed up for mortality over 20 years. OUTCOME: Perception of a "family weakness" attributable to heart disease. RESULTS: 26% of sons and daughters had a parent who had died of coronary heart disease (CHD). The proportion was higher in older offspring (+18% per 10 year age difference) and in manual compared with non-manual groups (+37%). Eighty nine per cent of parental deaths from CHD were correctly reported by offspring. Only 23% of sons and 34% of daughters with at least one parent who had died of CHD considered that they had a family weakness attributable to heart disease. Perceptions of a family weakness were higher when one or both parents had died of CHD, when parental deaths occurred at a younger age, in daughters compared with sons and in offspring in non-manual compared with manual occupations. CONCLUSIONS: Only a minority of sons and daughters with experience of a parent having died from CHD perceive this in terms of a family weakness attributable to heart disease. Although men in manual occupations are most likely to develop CHD, they are least likely to interpret a parental death from CHD in terms of a family weakness. Health professionals giving advice to patients on their familial risks need to be aware of the difference between clinical definitions and lay perceptions of a family history of heart disease.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Twenty-four-hour blood pressure profiles in normotensive sons of hypertensive parents.

We investigated whether blood pressures are higher in normotensive offspring of hypertensive parents than in normotensive offspring of normotensive parents outside the physician's office and, if so, whether these higher blood pressures are dependent on the level of dietary sodium intake. We compared 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure profiles between 11 normotensive sons of two hypertensive parents and 11 normotensive sons of two normotensive parents; profiles were recorded after 1 week of a low sodium diet (10 meq/day) and after 1 week of a high sodium diet (200 meq/day). The sons of hypertensive parents were on average 6 years older than the sons of normotensive parents (47 +/- 5 [SD] versus 41 +/- 4 years, p < 0.05). The shift from low to high sodium diet did not significantly change the magnitude of differences in office or ambulatory blood pressures between the groups (i.e., no group-by-diet interaction); thus, we assessed group effects by contrasting blood pressure means for each group pooled across diets. Age-adjusted office blood pressure was higher in sons of hypertensive parents than in sons of normotensive parents (116 +/- 7/80 +/- 6 versus 111 +/- 7/75 +/- 6 mm Hg; p = 0.020 for systolic and p = 0.003 for diastolic blood pressure).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Fibrinogen, factor VII, antithrombin III, cholesterol and triglycerides in young men with myocardial infarction and in their sons.

The concentrations of fibrinogen (Fb) and the activities of factor VII (F VIIC) and antithrombin III (AT III) both in men less than 55 years old with a history of myocardial infarction (MI) and with normolipemia (MI-NLP) or hyperlipoproteinemia (MI-HLP) and in their sons have been measured. A significantly higher levels of Fb were found in both MI groups. Significantly higher levels of F VIIC and AT III were found only in the MI-NLP group. No lipid or haemostatic disorders were noted in sons. Furthermore, a positive correlation between the level of F VIIC and triglycerides (TG) or total cholesterol (TCh) in the patients and sons was revealed. A positive correlation was found between: (a) Fb levels in MI-HLP patients and in their sons; (b) TG levels in MI-HLP patients and in their sons; and (c) AT III activity in MI patients and in their sons. Fibrinogen appears to be associated with ischemic heart disease more closely than factor VII, the latter being strongly linked with hypertriglyceridemia. Elevated activities of AT III may reflect the haemostatic response to the prothrombotic state in IHD on the one hand whereas they may contribute to the development of IHD on the other.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Paternal correlates of adolescent marijuana use in the context of the mother-son and parental dyads.

This study was designed to examine the paternal determinants of male adolescent marijuana use in the context of the mother-son and parental relationships. In addition, parental factors affecting experimental vs regular use of marijuana were examined. Two hundred forty-six male college students and their fathers were administered written questionnaires. Results indicated that the father's personality attributes and socialization techniques are associated with the son's use of marijuana despite control on the mother-son relationship. Fathers of marijuana users score higher on measures of psychopathology and unconventionality, and are less likely to have established close relationships with their sons. In addition, marijuana users more than nonusers have unaffectionate mothers and parents with less harmonious marital relations. Also of importance were interactions within the family system. The significance of these second-order effects highlights the importance of examining the father-son relation in the context of mother-son and parental interactions.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Do parents prefer sons in North Korea?

Son preference in South Korea is stronger than anywhere else in the world, yet little is known about such preference in North Korea. Simple indicators of son preference in North Korea are constructed from its 1993 population census and a 1998 survey of child nutrition (conducted in the wake of the recent famine). These indicators include sex ratio at birth, sex ratios of infant and child mortality, and sex ratios of child malnutrition. North Koreans do not evince prenatal discrimination against daughters, a finding that may indicate a lack of prenatal sex-testing technologies. Neither is evidence found of excess female mortality or malnutrition in the postnatal period, during which discrimination requires no special technology. The discrepancy in son preference across the Korean peninsula seems due largely to the socialist agenda pursued in the north following political partition after World War II. An important aspect of that agenda challenged the ancient Confucian ideology presumed to underlie son preference. Apparently, this challenge was more successful in North Korea than in other Asian societies instituting similar political changes, because son preference was not eliminated in China or in Vietnam.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

How the number of living sons influences contraceptive use in Menoufia Governorate, Egypt.

Couples in rural areas of many Arab societies, including Egypt, have consistently reported strong preferences for having sons. However, these reported preferences are not always reflected in reproductive behavior. In 38 rural villages in Menoufia Governorate in Egypt, women's responses to a community-based contraceptive distribution program were examined, taking into consideration both the number of living children and the number of living sons each women reported having. Controlling for number of living children, women with more sons were more likely to be using contraception before the distribution program began. Among women not using contraception before the program, those with more sons were more likely to initiate contraceptive use and were more likely to continue use for a nine-month period following the distribution. These findings imply that in addition to obstacles related to contraceptive availability, there are several cultural, social, and economic factors that influence fertility behavior and exert considerable pressure on married couples to have large families, including several sons. Unless the pressure exerted by these factors is changed or reduced, the impact of family planning programs is likely to reach a plateau at a relatively low prevalence level.

Adolescent↗