Number of siblings and intellectual development: The resource dilution explanation.

Downey, Douglas B.

doi:10.1037/0003-066x.56.6-7.497

Cited by 388 publications

(371 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…On the other hand, additional family members who primarily compete for family resources (such as grandparents and siblings) reduce the available resources for a child, often yielding fewer learning opportunities and lower academic achievement (resource dilution hypothesis; see Figure 1, middle column;Downey, 2001). Some children benefit from affluent grandparents' resources (Bengston, 2001) and show higher achievement (DeLeire & Kalil, 2002).…”

Section: Family Constructsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Families, economies, cultures, and science achievement in 41 countries: Country-, school-, and student-level analyses.

Chiu¹

2007

Journal of Family Psychology

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This study examines the links between students' families and science achievement across many countries. Science tests and questionnaire responses of 107,834 fifteen-year-olds in 41 countries were analyzed with multilevel analyses. Students had higher science scores if they were native born, lived with two parents, lived without grandparents, lived with fewer siblings (especially older ones), had more educational resources, had more family involvement, lived in wealthier countries, or lived in countries with more equal distributions of household income. In wealthier countries, family involvement, blended families, and number of siblings showed stronger links to science scores. Science achievement was more strongly linked to family socioeconomic status (SES) and educational resources in more egalitarian cultures and to single parents, family SES, resident grandparents, and birth order in more individualistic cultures. Hence, family constructs were linked to academic achievement in all 41 countries, and the links were stronger in more economically and culturally developed countries.

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Section: Family Constructsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Families, economies, cultures, and science achievement in 41 countries: Country-, school-, and student-level analyses.

Chiu¹

2007

Journal of Family Psychology

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“…family size) seems to matter. The basic assumption is derived from the resource dilution theory (Downey, 1995(Downey, , 2001) that suggests that the presence of siblings may have a negative impact on parental involvement. Both aspects outlined here are highly relevant to immigrant families.…”

Section: Associations Between Parental Involvement and Family Charactmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Schnell

2015

CMS

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This article explores school-related involvement strategies within Turkish families in Austria, France and Sweden and their linkages with educational achievements of their children. Using data from the TIES survey, results show that the educational attainment of second-generation Turks in Austria is much more dependent on various activities of support provided by their parents when compared to their counterparts in France and Sweden after holding family background characteristics constant. Besides, the educational success of second-generation Turks in Austria is reliant on the extra support they receive from older siblings beyond parental involvement and education background. No such significant effects were observed in either France or Sweden. The paper further reveals that second-generation Turks are more reliant on educational support from their parents than are the children of majority families within Austria. The paper suggests that these different findings across countries have to be read in the light of interaction mechanisms with institutional settings of the given education systems.

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“…In post-transitional populations, the implications for reproductive success are less clear-cut. There is some evidence that adverse effects on health and development persist 8,16,17 but some studies have also found that larger natal family size and/or higher birth order is associated with higher fertility [18][19][20][21] . Not all study populations born in the early 20 th century show this relationship 22,23 and several report it to be stronger in women than in men 18,19 .…”

Section: Existing Evidence On How Early Life Circumstances Affect An mentioning

confidence: 99%

Social and biological determinants of reproductive success in Swedish males and females born 1915–1929

Goodman

Koupil

2009

Evolution and Human Behavior

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Studying biological and social determinants of mortality and fertility provides insight into selective pressures in a population and the possibility of trade-offs between short-and long-term reproductive success. Limited data is available from post-demographic transition populations. We studied determinants of reproductive success using multi-generational data from a large, population-based cohort of 13 666 individuals born in Sweden between 1915 and 1929. We studied the effects of birthweight for gestational age, preterm birth, birth multiplicity, birth order, mother's age, mother's marital status and family socio-economic position upon reproductive success, measured as total number of children and grandchildren. We further tested the hypothesis that number of grandchildren would peak at intermediate family size, as predicted by some life history explanations for fertility limitation.Reproductive success was associated with both social and biological characteristics at birth. In both sexes, a higher birthweight for gestational age, a term birth and a younger mother were independently associated with a greater number of descendants. A married mother and higher family socio-economic position were also associated a greater number of descendants in males (but not females), while in females (but not males) higher birth order was associated with higher reproductive success. These effects were mediated by sex-specific effects upon the probability of marriage. Marriage was also affected by other early life characteristics including birthweight, indicating how 'biological' characteristics may operate via social pathways.Number of grandchildren increased with increasing number of children in both sexes, providing no evidence for a trade-off between quantity of offspring and their subsequent reproductive 'quality'.

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Number of siblings and intellectual development: The resource dilution explanation.

Cited by 388 publications

References 51 publications

Families, economies, cultures, and science achievement in 41 countries: Country-, school-, and student-level analyses.

Families, economies, cultures, and science achievement in 41 countries: Country-, school-, and student-level analyses.

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

Social and biological determinants of reproductive success in Swedish males and females born 1915–1929

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