Scholastic and personality characteristics of only children and children with siblings in China
Poston, D.L.J.; Falbo, T.
International Family Planning Perspectives 16(2): 45-48
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0190-3187 DOI: 10.2307/2133467Document Number: 370305
A study of the effects of China's one child policy on academic achievement and personality characteristics of only children was undertaken in 1987 among Chinese schoolchildren in rural and urban areas of Changchun, Jilin Province. The findings did not support reports in the Chinese and Western press that the one-child-per-family policy is creating a generation of spoiled children. Overall, the only children performed significantly better than children with siblings on academic measures but scored similarly on personality ratings. When the children were subdivided by urban vs. rural residence and by grade level, urban children without siblings scored significantly higher than their peers with siblings on academic measures; there were no differences on these measures among the rural children. Although the children's teachers tended to rate the only children as more virtuous and more competent than the children with siblings, the parents' ratings of their own children on the same scales indicated no significant differences between the two groups.