Comparing Adolescent Only Children with Those Who Have Siblings on Academic Related Outcomes and Psychosocial Adjustment

Abstract

This study uses a large and representative sample of adolescents to test the theoretically informed hypotheses comparing adolescent singletons with those who have siblings. The results found that, for academic related outcomes (educational expectations, time spent on homework, and self-reported grades), there are no differences between singletons and firstborns who have any number of younger siblings. Singletons are also not different from laterborns from two-child families. In contrast, singletons are more advantageous compared to laterborns who have two or more siblings on educational expectations and grades. Singletons also spend more time on homework than laterborns who have three or more siblings. For psychosocial outcomes (psychological distress, susceptibility to negative peer pressure, and problem behaviors), singletons are not different from both firstborns and laterborns with any number of siblings. The findings suggest that singletons are not at any disadvantage compared to their peers who have siblings and they enjoy some advantages over laterborns from medium to large families on academic related outcomes.

Sibling configuration and the right to fail – parental and children’s own scholastic aspirations in different types of families

“…A consistent finding in the previous research on sibling configuration is that singletons, as well as older siblings, tend to perform better academically than later-born siblings (e.g. Chen & Liu, 2014). It is also well known that the size of the sibling group tends to be negatively related to the academic achievement of children (Steelman, Powell, Werum, & Carter, 2002).…”

Behind the scenes: family involvement and educational achievements of second-generation Turks in Austria, France and Sweden

“…Although some authors tend to argue that educational support by (older) siblings is negatively correlated with the number of siblings within a family (e.g. Guo & VanWey (1999); for caution see Chen and Liu (2014)), recent empirical research demonstrates that descendants of immigrants are not as negatively affected by large family size than children from the majority population (Moguérou, Santelli, Primon, & Hamel, 2013). As Moguérou and Santelli argue in their article in this issue, elder siblings in immigrant families frequently help realize their parents' educational aspirations and compensate for what the parents have not been able to provide, despite their ambition.…”

Only children or siblings: who has higher physical activity and healthier weight?

“…Evidence-based reasons explaining the sociological phenomenon of single-child families include higher age of parents when starting a family, increased financial demands of families [15,18], but also housing in rural areas, family caregiving, one or both parents having grown up in a single-child family [15], time pressure inherently related to giving birth [19] and political reasons [16,20,21]. Single-child families can be, in addition to parenting child-centeredness [20], and no sibling rivalry, an appreciation of the child being the only recipient of parents' emotional and financial resources [22].…”

“…Single-child families can be, in addition to parenting child-centeredness [20], and no sibling rivalry, an appreciation of the child being the only recipient of parents' emotional and financial resources [22]. They are regularly investigated in psychosocial research [15,16,21,22] but rarely in public health related research [23].…”

“…From a psychosocial point of view (psychological distress, susceptibility to negative peer pressure, self-reported school performance, and problem behaviours), only children do not diverge from children with siblings and might even have some advantages over 'laterborns' regarding school-related outcomes [16,21]. However, there are possible indications of differences in the level of PA depending on the number of siblings [23].…”