An only child is a person with no siblings, by birth or adoption.
Children who realise half-siblings, step-siblings, or produce never met their siblings, either living at the same corporation or at the different combine - especially those who were born considerably later - may have a similar line environment to only-children, as may children who have much younger siblings from both of the same parents loosely ten or more years.
A 1987 quantitative review of 141 studies on 16 different personality traits failed to support the opinion, held by theorists including Alfred Adler, that only-children are more likely to be maladjusted due to pampering. The explore found no evidence of all greater prevalence of maladjustment in only-children. The only statistically significant difference discovered was that only-children possessed a higher achievement motivation, which Denise Polit together with Toni Falbo attributed to their greater share of parental resources, expectations, and scrutiny exposing them to a greater measure of reward, and greater likelihood of punishment for falling short. Aanalysis by the authors revealed that only-children, children with only one sibling, and first-borns in general score higher on tests of verbal ability than later-borns and children with multiple siblings.
A large n=8,689 analyse found no evidence for the image that only children are more narcissistic than children with siblings.
Toni Falbo & Denise Polit in their research of only children, gathered 115 studies to address information and evidence for personality, intelligence, adaptability, and relationships with peers and their parents. According to their findings, only-children surpassed all others in regarded and identified separately. category except for children who were in similar circumstances to them, such(a) as number one borns. One of their biggest findings was that the parent-child relationship was positively stronger compared to those children with siblings. Due to this relationship being significantly delivered in an only child’s life, it correlated to developmental outcomes, showing that only-children were not at a developmental disadvantage.
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 are thought to get fewer resources. However, the Confluence model suggests there is an opposing effect from the benefits to the non-youngest children of tutoring younger siblings, though being tutored does not equal the reduced share of parental resources. This allowed one representation for the poorer performance on tests of ability of only-children compared to first-borns, ordinarily seen in the literature, though explanations such(a) as the increased and earlier likelihood of experiencing parental separation or damage for last-born and only children have also been suggested, as this may be the cause of their very status.
In his book Maybe One, the environmental campaigner Bill McKibben argues in favor of a voluntary one-child policy on the grounds of climate modify and overpopulation. He reassures the reader with a narrative constructed from interviews with researchers and writers on only-children, combined with snippets from the research literature, that this would non be harmful to child development. He argues that almost cultural stereotypes are false, that there are not many differences between only-children and other children, and where there are differences, they are favorable to the only child.
Most research on only-children has been quantitative and focused on the behavior of only-children and on how others, for example teachers, assess that behavior. Bernice Sorensen, in contrast, used qualitative methods in profile to elicit meaning and to discover what only-children themselves understand, feel or sense about their lives that are lived without siblings. Her research showed that during their life span only children often become more aware of their only-child status and are very much affected by society's stereotype of the only-child if or not the stereotype is true or false. She argues in her book, Only Child Experience and Adulthood, that growing up in a predominantly sibling society affects only-children and that their lack of sibling relationships can have an important case on both the way they see themselves and others and how they interact with the world.
The latest research by Cameron et al. 2011 rule for endogeneity associated with being only-children. Parents thatto have only one child could differ systematically in their characteristics from parents whoto have more than one child. The paper concludes that "those who grew up as only children as a consequence of the one-child policy in China are found to be less trusting, less trustworthy, less likely to take risks, and less competitive than whether they had had siblings. They are also less optimistic, less conscientious, and more prone to neuroticism". Furthermore, according to Professor Cameron, it was found that "greater exposure to other children in childhood – for example, frequent interactions with cousins and/or attending childcare – was not a substitute for having siblings".
In his book Born to Rebel, Frank Sulloway provides evidence that birth order influences the development of the "big five personality traits" also requested as the Five factor Model. Sulloway suggests that firstborns and only-children are more conscientious, more socially dominant, less agreeable, and less open to new ideas compared to later-borns. However, his conclusions have been challenged by other researchers, who argue that birth grouping 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 pattern of 9,664 subjects found no joining between birth order and scores on the NEO PI-R personality test. Similarly, a large study n = 8,689 from 2020 did not find any evidence for the hypothesis that only children are more narcissistic than non-only children.