SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF SONS AND DAUGHTERS UNWANTED AMONG INDIGENOUS AND MESTIZO WOMEN IN SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, CHIAPAS

• Main Authors: Gerardo Núñez-Medina, María Georgina Rivas-Bocanegra, Hilda María Jiménez-Acevedo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Autónoma Indígena de México 2016-01-01
• Series: Ra Ximhai
• Subjects: prevalence; pregnancy; abortion; logistic regression
• Online Access: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_QQ0W8TI5acdy00UTZpcEZwa1E/view
• ISSN: 1665-0441; 1665-0441

The incidence of unwanted children in San Cristobal de las Casas is estimated in the order of 39% of births, this figure has important implications for the quality of life for women and their children. The work aims to quantify the prevalence of unwanted children between indigenous and mestizo women, in addition to distinguish their socioeconomic characteristics. The information presented was collected from a random sample lifted in April 2014, to women living in the urban area of the municipality of San Cristobal de las Casas, aged between 15 and 54 years old with at least one children ever born. It is a probabilistic survey of clustering in two stages representative for urban areas and for indigenous and mestizo women. After the implementation of a logistic regression model it was possible to estimate the effect that a set of socio- economic variables have on the chances of a woman having an unwanted child. The results suggest that the highest incidence of unwanted children is concentrated among illiterate women, adolescents (15 to 19), single and indigenous Tzeltal. However, the prevalence is high in all ethnic groups and all socioeconomic strata, so it is very important to understand the effect each variable has on the occurrence of the phenomenon in order to protect women (and their children) harmed by the effects of these variables.