Pregnant women's social status, stress, self-esteem, and their infants' sex ratio at birth

A reported association of social status of parents with infants' sex ratio at birth and of psychological stress (score on Beck Depression Inventory) w ith sex ratio were not supported by our analysis, but the possibility of an association between scores on the Rosenberg Self-esteem scale and sex rati o at birth for a sample of 385 pregnant women showed that women who have gi ven birth to boys scored lower on self-esteem during pregnancy than those w ho have given birth to girls. Some explanations are reviewed to discuss thi s unforeseen association.