Sex, Birth Order, and Creativity in the Context of China’s One-Child Policy and Son Preference

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the influences of sibling constellation (sex and birth order) on creativity in the context of China’s one-child policy (OCP) and Confucian culture (e.g., preference for male offspring). Participants were recruited from a public university in east China and were asked to complete 2 divergent thinking tests, including a line meaning test and a real-world problem test. Data collected from those born in or after 1979 (the year OCP was implemented in China) were selected. The sample was further divided into 6 groups for comparisons including first son, first daughter, later son, later daughter, only son, and only daughter. Results indicated that only children exhibited significantly higher abilities in visual imagination (line meaning) tasks than children with siblings. Further, testing revealed that only daughters exhibited the highest abilities, both in visual imagination (line meaning) and creative problem solving (real-world problems), as compared to other sibling constellation groups. Specifically, only daughters scored higher than later daughters in visual imagination. They also showed higher abilities than first sons in both types of creative potential tests. Implications are further discussed in the paper.