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Scientists have studied the age gap in siblings and the children’s academic performance. Surprise: there would be a link between the two elements. Explanations.
The academic level of French students is historically low. According to the latest Pisa ranking, the country’s young schoolchildren rank 28th in French, particularly in aspects of written comprehension, and 26th place in mathematics.
This ranking can be explained by certain factual elements, such as listening in class, but the age gap between siblings would also be responsible for the situation.
The age gap, an element of academic success
Researchers had the idea of looking at the age gap between children in their families. And they discovered that it had an impact on their academic performance. A study published in The Journal of Human Resources found that children who are more than two years apart from their younger siblings perform better on math and reading tests.
On the contrary, children who were less than 21 months apart or more than 5 years apart in age present more difficulties in these specific subjects. The vocabulary of these children was also poorer than that of the others.
What causes siblings who are too close together or, on the contrary, too far apart to cause this type of academic difficulty?
“One reason for this could be that when parents have children close together, they have less time to spend talking, interacting and reading with each child, which could impact academic performance. explains child psychologist Dr Michelle McDowell, interviewed by Inews. This would also partly explain why wider age gaps are associated with “of the higher IQ scores and better results” she adds.
What is the perfect age gap between two children?
Research suggests that the “perfect” age gap between siblings, for both children and parents, is around two and a half years. This would allow time to devote time to a second child, while the first would have already acquired certain basics, particularly vocabulary.
However, having a child is a personal choice specific to each person, which cannot simply be correlated to a calculation of age difference.