An only child is a child with no siblings, either biological or adopted. Adoption is the act of legally placing a child with a Parent or parents other than those to whom they were born Although first-born children may be considered temporary only children, and have a similar early family environment, the term only child is generally applied only to those individuals who never have siblings. Family denotes a group of People affiliated by consanguinity affinity or co-residence Children with much older siblings may also have a similar family environment to only children.
Families may have an only child for a variety of reasons, including financial issues, stress in the family, time constraints, fears over pregnancy, advanced age, infertility, or death of a sibling. Additionally, some parents decide to have only one child because they simply prefer it that way.
In China, parents are legally encouraged to have only one child with the One-child policy. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The one-child policy is the Population control policy (or planned birth policy of the People's Republic of China (PRC
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Stereotypes
G. Stanley Hall was one of the first experts to give only children a bad reputation when he referred to their situation as "a disease in itself. " Even today, only children are commonly stereotyped as "spoiled, selfish and bratty. " [1] Susan Newman, a social psychologist at Rutgers University and the author of Parenting an Only Child, says that this is a myth. Rutgers The State University of New Jersey (also known as Rutgers University) is the largest institution for higher education in the state of New Jersey "People articulate that only children are spoiled, they're aggressive, they're bossy, they're lonely, they're maladjusted," she said. The reality, according to Newman, is that "there have been hundreds and hundreds of research studies that show that only children are no different from their peers. " [2]
Adler's theory
Alfred Adler (1870-1937), an Austrian psychiatrist and a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, was another early theorist who believed that only children were deficient. Alfred Adler ( February 7 1870 &ndash May 28 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor, psychologist and founder of Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded He argued that birth order leaves an indelible impression on an individual's style of life - that is, the individual's habitual way of dealing with the tasks of friendship, love, and work. Adler believed that because only children have no rivals for their parents' affection, they may be pampered and spoiled by their parents, particularly the mother. He suggested that this could later cause interpersonal difficulties if the person is not universally liked and admired. [1]
Scientific research
A 1987 quantitative review of 141 studies on 16 different personality traits contradicted Adler's theory by finding no evidence of any maladjustment in only children. In Statistics, a meta-analysis combines the results of several studies that address a set of related research hypotheses The most important finding was that only children are not very different from children with siblings. The main exception to this was the finding that only children are higher in achievement motivation. [2] A second analysis revealed that only children, first-borns, and children with only one sibling score higher on tests of verbal ability than later-borns and children with multiple siblings. [3]
The advantage of only children in test scores and achievement motivation may be due to the greater amount of parental attention they receive. According to the Resource Dilution Model, parental resources (e. g. time to read to the child) are important in development. Because these resources are finite, children with many siblings receive fewer resources. [4]
The Big Five
Contemporary personality theorists generally agree that the "big five personality traits" (also known as Five Factor Model) represent a natural taxonomy of human personality variables. In Psychology, the "Big Five" personality traits are five broad factors or dimensions of personality developed through lexical analysis Across different languages, the vast majority of adjectives used to describe human personality fit into one of the following five areas, easily remembered by the acronym OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Openness to experience is one of five major domains of personality discovered by psychologists Conscientiousness is the Trait of being painstaking and Careful, or the quality of acting according to the dictates of one's Conscience. The trait of Extraversion-Introversion is a central dimension of human personality. Agreeableness is a tendency to be pleasant and accommodating in social situations Neuroticism is a fundamental personality trait in the study of Psychology. Factor analyses of personality tests also tend to cluster around these five factors.
In his book Born to Rebel, Frank Sulloway provides evidence that birth order influences the development of Big Five personality traits. Frank J Sulloway is a visiting Scholar in the Institute of Personality and Social Research at the University of California, Berkeley and a Visiting Professor "Little sister" redirects here For other uses see Little Sister. Sulloway suggests that firstborns and only children are more conscientious, more socially dominant, less agreeable, and less open to new ideas compared to laterborns. [5] However, his conclusions have been challenged by other researchers,[6] who argue that birth order effects are weak and inconsistent. In one of the largest studies conducted on the effect of birth order on the Big Five, data from a national sample of 9,664 subjects found no association between birth order and scores on the NEO PI-R personality test. The Revised NEO Personality Inventory, or NEO PI-R, is a Psychological personality inventory; a 240-question measure of the Five Factor Model [7]
See also
References
- ^ Adler, A. "Little sister" redirects here For other uses see Little Sister. The one-child policy is the Population control policy (or planned birth policy of the People's Republic of China (PRC (1964). Problems of neurosis. New York: Harper and Row.
- ^ Polit, D. F. & Falbo, T. (1987) Only children and personality development: A quantitative review. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 49, 309-325.
- ^ Polit, D. F. & Falbo, T. (1988). The intellectual achievement of only children. Journal of Biosocial Science, 20, 275-285.
- ^ Downey, D. B. (2001). Number of siblings and intellectual development: The resource dilution explanation. American Psychologist, 56, 497-504.
- ^ Sulloway, F. J. (1996). Born to rebel: Birth order, family dynamics and creative lives. New York: Pantheon Books.
- ^ Harris, J. R. (2006). No two alike: Human nature and human individuality. WW Norton & Company.
- ^ Jefferson, T. , Herbst, J. H. , & McCrae, R. R. (1998). Associations between birth order and personality traits: Evidence from self-reports and observer ratings. Journal of Research in Personality, 32, 498-509.
External links
- Birth order and intelligence
- Only Kids Club A chat group for only kids of all ages, parents of only kids, significant others of only kids, and anyone else who is interested in discussing the issues of only kids.
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