Number Of Older Siblings Research Articles

School Grades and Responsibility for Younger Siblings: An Empirical Study of the "Teaching Function"

Hypotheses derived from the confluence model of family effects upon intellectual growth and from related theory and research are tested in data from sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade students. Self-reported school grades have a substantial negative relationship with number of older siblings among whites, but not among blacks. The grades of the black respondents have a surprising negative relationship with responsibility for younger siblings. Confluence-model ideas appear to be less adequate for blacks than for whites, but some revisions in the model may be required in the case of whites also. Among whites, grades are curvilinearly related to responsibility for younger siblings, indicating that very frequent responsibility for younger sisters and brothers may be counterproductive. Females report greater responsibility for younger siblings than males, but there is no indication that the sex difference in this variable accounts for the sex difference in grades.

Birth order as a quantitative expression of date of birth.

Publications on birth order mostly differ in their findings. In 1874 Galton1 stated that firstborn dominated among eminent men. Thirty years later, Pearson2 claimed that society was corrupted through the defects of firstborn. Surveys39 covering hundreds of books and articles give a remarkably inconsistent picture of the influence of sibling position on physical and psychological development. In 1913 Weinberg10 showed that methodological slips are an important source of confusing results. One such slip is the idea that the number of older siblings (earlyborn) and the number of younger siblings (lateborn) should balance in the population. If a total sibship is considered as a unit, beginning at 0 with the oldest sibling and ending at 1 with the youngest one, it is obvious that 05 is the exact mean position of its members. The same statement is true for any sample of total sibships but not for a sample consisting of members of different sibships. In fact, Cobb,11 as early as 1914 pointed to circumstances that might fundamentally distort birth order balance in the general population, but his warnings were not taken seriously. The consequences have been devastating. Those who have studied the influence of sibling position on disease, character, performance, or fate have mostly used methods based on the Greenwood-Yule model,12 with its erroneous assumption of a balanced birth order distribution in the general population. If a researcher found that a group of trait-carriers contained more lateborn than earlyborn, or the reverse, he asked whether the ratio deviated significantly from a 50 : 50 distribution. If so he felt entitled to state that the trait and the skewed distribution (overrepresentation) had something to do with each other.

Sex Differences in the Impact of Number of Older and Number of Younger Siblings on Scholastic Aptitude

It is hypothesized that females are less likely than males to show deficits in intellectual development normally associated with larger numbers of siblings (i.e., family size), particularly if those siblings are younger brothers and sisters. Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, as well as measures of socioeconomic status, number of older siblings, and number of younger siblings, were available for each of 1,811 college freshmen (963 males and 848 females). With socioeconomic status controlled, the results indicate that number of older siblings is associated with lower SAT scores for both males and females. However, a sex difference emerges with respect to the impact of number of younger siblings. For males, increasing numbers of younger siblings are associated with lower SAT scores. But for females, increasing numbers of younger siblings are associated with higher SAT scores. A role-differentiation explanation is proposed to account for the beneficial impact of younger siblings on females' SAT scores. The implications of this study for future research on family constellation effects are discussed.

Correlates of college students' loneliness.

Loneliness has been linked with excessive drug and alcohol use, overeating, suicide, and other harmful means of coping (1, 3, 4 ) . Several writers have idenrified social isolation (absence of social network) and emotional isolarion (lack of fulfilling relationships) as primary determinants of loneliness (1, 3 ) . College students away from home, in a new community, are likely to be especially vulnerable ( 2 ) . The present study sought to idenrify the relationships demographic, social, and interpersonal adjustment variables have with subjective ratings of loneliness and time spent alone among college students. It was predicted that loneliness would correlare with indices of emotional and social isolation and increased reliance on coping. A 30-item questionnaire employing rating scales was administered to 179 undergraduate psychology students (82 males and 97 females) at the University of Nebraska. The subjects' mean age was 19.4 yr. (SD = 2.6 yr. ) and 67 % were freshmen. Analysis of the 39-variable correlation matrix showed ratings of loneliness were positively correlated ( p 4 .05) with time alone ( r = .18), time spent studying alone ( T = .15) , number of older siblings ( T = .19), and were negatively correlated with dating frequency ( r = -.17). These results provide minimal support for the predicted association with social and emotional indicators of isolation. Time spent alone was also significantly associated with having employment ( r = .18) and study time alone ( r = .26). As was predicted significant negative relationships were found between alone rime and time spent with friends ( r = .23), dating frequency ( r = . 2 4 ) , party attendance ( r = -.17), number of close friends ( T = -.19), frequency of discussing personal problems with others ( r = .29), time spent studying with friends ( T = -.30), and number of younger siblings ( r = -.16). Men spent more time alone than women ( r = -.17). These data suggest thar, while there was some overlap between ratings of loneliness and time spent alone the measures of alone time had a more consistent association with social and emotional isolation variables than did the subjective racings of loneliness. Perhaps self-reported ratings of loneliness are more likely to elicit emotional defensiveness compared to estimates of time spent alone. The number of casual friends, social club membership, attendance at religious activities imply the presence of a social network but were nonsignificantly related to loneliness or to time spent alone. Contrary to expcctarions, such things as watching TV and using drugs and alcohol were not significantly related to loneliness or time spent alone.