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Birth Order and Sibling Sex Composition Effects Among Surviving Children in India: Enrollment Status and Test Scores
Author(s) -
Makino Momoe
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the developing economies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.305
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1746-1049
pISSN - 0012-1533
DOI - 10.1111/deve.12179
Subject(s) - birth order , sibling , demography , test (biology) , psychology , developmental psychology , population , sociology , biology , paleontology
While the birth of later‐born girls seems least welcome in India, where gender discrimination persists, birth order and sibling sex composition effects among surviving children are less known. The current study investigates whether later‐born girls are discriminated from their siblings once children survive up to primary school age in India. Examining the effects on test scores reveals that there is no negative later‐born effect for girls among surviving children. Instead, girls seem to be consistently at an advantage if they have elder sisters. Furthermore, gender bias among primary school age children is detected only in households of larger size. This implies that gender discrimination is severe in terms of survival, but once children survive up to primary school age they are treated equally.