The wordings of birth announcements suggest a greater sense of pride, status and accomplishment with a son and greater affection and happiness with a daughter, Montreal researchers say. Baby girls are more likely to merit words such as “thrilled,” “excited” and “overjoyed,” while boys more often elicit achievement-linked terms like “proud” and “pride.” Study director Richard Koestner, a McGill University psychologist, expected that parents would report greater pride with boys, since research by economists found that boys elicit more “achievement striving” in parents. “But we were surprised at the greater happiness reported with girls.” Such differences might subtly influence parents’ perceptions of a child’s worth and how much they invest in her development.
Research has shown that parents with girls only are more apt to divorce than parents with boys, and that parents with several girls are more likely to try for another child in hopes of having a boy.
