The Folklore of Pregnancy

Abstract

The similarity of attitudes towards pregnancy and childbirth was investigated in two studies. Study 1 examined the attitudes towards the preference of the sex of first- and second born children among 1169 college students, who were not yet parents, in four samples, from 1978 to 1986. Five percent of the men and 9–2% of the women preferred Girl-Girl; 21.4% of men and 12.7% of women, Boy-Boy; 14.8% of the men and 29–2% of the women Girl-Boy, and 51.7% of the men and 426% of the women Boy-Girl. The same pattern of differences between the groups appeared over the 8-yr. period. Study 2 compared five ethnic groups on five categories of attitudes and superstition related to pregnancy and childbirth and found significant differences among the groups based upon the groups' patterns of immigration to the United States—the longer the ethnic group as a whole had been in the United States the lower the index of folklore. Rank order of the five categories of superstition was consistent among all of the ethnic groups surveyed.