Gender Preference and Child Labor in Indonesia

Abstract

This study examines the prevalence of son preference among ever-married women aged between 15 and 49 years in Indonesia. A continuing longitudinal socioeconomic and health survey data, Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS, Wave 4) 2007, were used by implementing multiple classification analysis (MCA) as a method to analyze interrelationships between several predictor variables and a dependent variable within the context of an additive model. The variables used were women’s characteristics including age, education, number of living and died children, covering both rural and urban areas. The findings revealed that son preference remained as the principal determinant for future birth even after controlling the effect of factors and covariates. In addition, factors such as having at least one son in the family, married late in life, and level of educations highly influenced the desire among Indonesian women for future birth.