Bernice’s Research

What else can we learn from only child research?

Part 2 In the previous post: Research in the West and China – are only children different? I discussed the rather contradictory facts from the research carried out by both US and Chinese researchers. Let us look at these contradictions further and see what we may learn. If we look at China: Poston & Falbo’s criticised the Chinese psychologists for holding negative stereotypes of only-children, as they did in their US research. Similarly they conclude that only-children are at a slight advantage over those with siblings, as they stated in the US. But it appears to me, that research, at least in China, has been politically useful with regard to the one-child policy and of course this is publically funded which I image is also the case in the US. What is particularly interesting to me is the cultural bias all research contains. In China where collectivism and achievement is [...]

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The negative side of being special: How a lack of de-thronement, by a sibling, can affect us in adulthood.

All children need to feel special particularly from their parents. In fact one of the advantages of being brought up an only child is often considered to be the extra attention you receive. The assumption is that the more attention the better and this can lead the only child to feel particularly ‘special’. I mean special in the old fashioned sense of a child who is very much loved and nurtured. However the special child can also be the child whose parent’s are blind to behaviours the child acquires as a result of their attention, which are not useful as the child moves from childhood to adolescence and finally to adulthood. With no siblings to counteract the sense of specialness that an only child experiences within the family, it can be a rude awakening to enter the real world where people are not going to treat you in this way. [...]

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Research in the West and China: Are only children different?

Part 1 In my previous post I looked at the roots of the negative stereotype. Prior to the 20th century the large family was the cultural norm. Having a lot of children was preferable because of high infant mortality and the lack of social benefit for the elderly. The more children you had were a guarantee, that as you became older, there might be someone to look after you. Farming communities in particular, knew it was beneficial to have many children to help with the numerous jobs required. The industrial revolution changed this somewhat, as more mouths to feed did not necessarily generate more food unless everyone had work. It was only when birth control was both more effective and freely available that this situation changed. Now people had a choice about the number of children they had, but the deep-seated idea that having many children was ‘God’s will’ remained. [...]

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The Only Child Personality: A Matrix

The diagram above is designed to introduce the complexity of the only child personality through the life span.  It is constructed as a result of my research that emerged from life-stories and interviews. The matrix has three strands of intra, inter, and extra – psychic to offer a three dimensional understanding of the way these three interact. At the centre of the only-child matrix is the intrapsychic, the private world of the only-child with two themes juxtaposed: that of the only-child’s feeling of specialness coupled with a feeling of aloneness and lack of connection to others. This is a result of never having been dethroned by a sibling, and at the same time missing out on the social and emotional learning a sibling provides. Without the ‘rough and tumble’ of sibling interaction, opportunities for dealing with jealousy, anger, envy and conflict, in the relatively safe environment of the home, are [...]

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Why do some families have only one child?

The growing number of one-child families, is an interesting phenomena that is occurring in both the US and Europe. With an increase in population the only-child family has been advocated as a way to curb population, particularly in China. One of the main reasons in the West for the increase in only children, appears to be due to such factors as later marriages, careers for women, a higher divorce rate, lower fertility and a desire to combine family and work. Having a child, and a career, is now a common expectation for women, and limiting the family to one child avoids some of the disadvantages of increasing financial responsibility, and dividing time and attention between children. In the past most families who had only one child did not do so through choice.  My research indicated that having one child was more often the consequence of a negative event, like a [...]

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So how do siblings affect the family dynamic?

  Articles in various newspapers last autumn announced that recent research has suggested that only children are happier than those with siblings. Gundi Knies, from the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, analysed the ‘Understanding Society’ data and concluded that the findings indicated ‘the fewer siblings children have, the happier they are.’ However it became clear from the rest of the article that in many cases this was based on families with large numbers of sibling children and families where a great deal of bullying took place. (You can read these reports in Articles) Can sibling relationships be beneficial or detrimental to the children concerned? Research in this area suggests that siblings are an important source for learning social and emotional skills. Socialization is seen to occur largely in the home through interaction with parents and siblings. Acceptable social roles are learned along with acceptable [...]

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