without siblings

Are only children happier?

A new study finds that quarreling siblings increase stress for the children as well as the parents.

Published in ‘The Week’  Is one the loneliest number? A new study says kids without siblings may be better off — thanks to an absence of bullying at home A new study finds that quarreling siblings increase stress for the children as well as the parents. Conventional wisdom holds that children without brothers and sisters are maladjusted and lonely compared to those with siblings. Not so, says a new British study from the University of Essex, which suggests that only children may have a better chance of happiness. Here’s a concise guide: What did the study find? Only children are happier than those with siblings, which may reflect the fact that they endure less bullying — something more than half of kids with siblings in the study reported. “Quarreling siblings increase stress for parents and some [parents] just give up intervening or intervene inconsistently, leaving the field wide open for [...]

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