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Being an only child may have more advantages than you might think, especially when it comes to health. A large study carried out in both China and the United States reveals that adolescents from large families have poorer mental health than those who live alone with their parents, or have only one brother or sister . A surprising observation which could be justified by “the dilution of parental resources”, but not only that… Explanations.
What parent has never – or almost never – heard their offspring asking for a little brother or sister? The opportunity for the person concerned to have a playmate, but also a life companion, with whom to share their joys and sorrows. However, there are not only advantages to sharing parents, as reported by a new study carried out by researchers at Ohio State University (United States). The latter took a very surprising interest in the impact of siblings on the mental health of adolescents, and its conclusions are surprising to say the least.
What are the implications for well-being?
Rarely, this work was carried out in two distinct countries, China and the United States, whose family and demographic policies differ considerably. The two analyzes concern eighth-grade students aged on average 14 years, which corresponds to the last year of middle school in France. The first, conducted in China, includes more than 9,400 adolescents from the China Education Panel Study, while the second, conducted in the United States, concerns more than 9,100 adolescents from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Everyone was asked to answer a questionnaire about their mental health, but the questions differed depending on the country.
Published in the Journal of Family Issues, this work first reveals that Chinese teenagers have on average 0.89 brothers or sisters, which is much fewer than American teenagers (1.6). According to the figures provided by the researchers, more than a third of the Chinese participants are only children, compared to only 12.6% of young Americans. An observation that is not surprising given the one-child policy established in the Middle Kingdom.
A brother/sister is good.. Doesn’t that suck anymore?
The conclusions, however, are much more surprising, since we learn that only children have the best mental health in China. And contrary to what one might think, the results are identical – or almost – in the United States: only children have similar mental health to adolescents who have only one brother or sister, but the levels of well-being is reduced as the family grows. As such, the study highlights that brothers and sisters, just like half-siblings, are associated with a decline in mental health in the United States.
“Our results could not have been easily predicted before we conducted the study. Other studies have shown that having more siblings is associated with some positive effects, so our results were not a foregone conclusion.“, says Doug Downey, professor of sociology at Ohio State University and lead author of this work, in a press release. And added: “But the fact that the general trend was observed in both countries is striking“.
Another observation induced by the American study: the impact on the well-being of adolescents is worse when they have older brothers and sisters, or when the members of the siblings are close in age. The repercussions are even more significant when brothers and sisters are born less than a year apart. And this could be explained – in part – by “the dilution of parental resources” induced by coming from a large family.
Alliance or competition?
“If we think of parental resources as a pie, a single child means that he or she gets the whole pie, that is, all of the parents’ attention and resources. But when you add siblings, each child receives fewer resources and attention from their parents, which can impact their mental health“, suggests Doug Downey. But this is not the only assumption made by the researchers.
“Another possibility, however, is that families who have many or few children are different in other ways, which may reduce the mental health of their children – this is called the selectivity. The differences between China and the United States provide some support for the selectivity explanation. In every country, children from the most socioeconomically advantaged families had the best mental health“, we can read.
The researchers, however, specify that they have not focused on the quality of relationships between brothers and sisters, which could considerably change the situation and even transform this negative impact into a positive effect. A factor to take into account in future more in-depth research.
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