Two-child Families Research Articles

The polio model. Does it apply to polio?

According to the polio model, severity of disease increases with age at infection. Firstborn children and people belonging to small families are generally infected later and should accordingly have a higher risk of severe polio. However, this model does contradict other explanations of severity of childhood infections including the intensive-exposure model. To evaluate the deductions from the polio model we performed a study based on medical records from 5590 historical polio cases from the county of Copenhagen 1940-1953. The relative risk (RR) of polio according to age, birth order and sibship size was evaluated using census data from 1940 and 1950. Severity of polio measured as frequency of paralysis or mortality did not show a steady increase with age, but a U-shaped curve being highest for the youngest as well as the oldest patients. The incidence of polio and paralytic polio was higher in families with several children compared with single children (RR = 1.13, 95% CI : 1.0-1.3). Furthermore, the incidence was higher in later-born children (P(trend) < 0.0001). However, as predicted from the intensive-exposure model, second-born children aged 1-4 years in two-child families had a higher risk of paralytic polio than first-born children (RR = 1.47, 95% CI : 1.1-2.0), whereas the opposite relationship was found for those aged > or = 5 years (RR = 0.65, 95% CI : 0.5-0.9). The polio model's prediction about the impact of age, sibship size and birth order on polio incidence and severity found only limited support. A model emphasizing intensity of exposure as a risk factor for severity may account better for the epidemiology of polio infection.

Interpersonal influence in family systems: a social relations model analysis.

Is parental control of a child's behavior due to the parenting style of the parent (e.g., authoritative parenting), the child's inclination toward compliance (i.e., an "easy" child), or the reciprocal system of parent-child exchange? This study addressed this question, as well as the broader one of who drives the interaction whenever one family member influences another. Family members from 208 two-parent two-child families of adolescents rated the degree to which each person in the family influenced each of the other family members. Social relations analysis of these data indicated that characteristics of the partner and the unique actor-partner "fit" were systematic sources of interpersonal influence, and that reciprocal influence was present in most--but not all--family dyads. A pattern in which parents compensate for each other's influenceability was also found. It is recommended that these findings be replicated using observational data that have been sequentially analyzed.

Sibling comparison of differential parental treatment in adolescence: gender, self-esteem, and emotionality as mediators of the parenting-adjustment association.

This study employs findings from social comparison research to investigate adolescents' comparisons with siblings with regard to parental treatment. The sibling comparison hypothesis was tested on a sample of 516 two-child families by examining whether gender, self-esteem, and emotionality-which have been found in previous research to moderate social comparison-also moderate sibling comparison as reflected by siblings' own evaluations of differential parental treatment. Results supported a moderating effect for self-esteem and emotionality but not gender. The sibling comparison process was further examined by using a structural equation model in which parenting toward each child was associated with the adjustment of that child and of the child's sibling. Evidence of the "sibling barricade" effect-that is, parenting toward one child being linked with opposite results on the child's sibling as on the target child-was found in a limited number of cases and interpreted as reflecting a sibling comparison process. For older siblings, emotionality and self-esteem moderated the sibling barricade effect but in the opposite direction as predicted. Results are discussed in terms of older siblings' increased sensitivity to parenting as well as the report of differential parenting reflecting the child's level of comfort and benign understanding of differential parenting, which buffers the child against environmental vicissitudes evoking sibling comparison processes.

Comparison of Nonparametric Statistics for Detection of Linkage in Nuclear Families: Single-Marker Evaluation

We have evaluated 23 different statistics, from a total of 10 popular software packages for model-free linkage analysis of nuclear-family data, by applying them to single-marker data simulated under several two-locus disease models. The statistics that we examined fall into two broad categories: (1) those that test directly for increased identity-by-state or identity-by-descent sharing (by use of the programs APM, Genetic Analysis System [GAS] SIBSTATE and SIBDES, SAGE SIBPAL, ERPA, SimIBD, and Genehunter NPL) and (2) those that are based on likelihood-ratio tests and that report LOD scores (by use of the programs Splink, SIBPAIR, Mapmaker/Sibs, ASPEX, and GAS SIBMLS). For each of eight two-locus disease models, we analyzed six data sets; the first three data sets consisted of two-child families with both sibs affected and zero, one, or both parents typed, whereas the other three data sets consisted of four-child families with at least two affected sibs and zero, one, or both parents typed. We report false-positive rates, overall rank by power, and the power for each statistic. We give rough recommendations regarding which programs provide the most powerful tests for linkage, as well as the programs to be avoided under certain conditions. For the likelihood-ratio-based statistics, we examined the effects of various treatments of sibships with multiple affected individuals. Finally, we explored the use of some simple two-of-three composite statistics and found that such tests are of only marginal benefit over the most powerful single statistic.

Adults’ Expectations for Children’s Sibling Roles

This study assesses generally shared norms for children’s sibling roles by examining adults’ role expectations for older brother, older sister, younger brother, and younger sister. Subjects listed prescriptions and proscriptions for each sibling in one of 12 two-child families with target children designated as 4 and 1, 7 and 4, or 10 and 7 years old for each of four sex compositions. Subjects had more, and relatively more positive, role expectations for older siblings than for younger siblings. Expectations differed qualitatively for the siblings (e.g. teaching, help, protection, and caretaking were associated with older siblings, learning, deference, and admiration with younger siblings). As the ages of the target children increased, role expectations for the siblings became more alike in some ways (e.g. affection and aggression) but less alike in others (e.g. respect and annoyance). The sex composition of the pair minimally influenced subjects’ responses; yet sibling roles for same-sex pairs were more differentiated than roles for mixed-sex pairs. Subjects’ sibling status did not affect their responses. The study provides a detailed description of children’s sibling roles and supported the prospect of using role theory as a framework for considering sibling relationships.

On the distribution of completed parities when fertility is heritable.

"Over the last one hundred years, there has been, in many developed countries, a demographic convergence towards the two child family. The possible implications for population growth of such a tendency are considered in this paper in terms of both family limitation and also the intergenerational transmission of fertility. These two effects interact so that as the proportion of two-child families increases, the possible influence of mother-daughter fertility associations on population growth decreases, though even now it could override otherwise significant changes in either or both of the birth and death intensities. In particular, it is shown that according...to how fertility is transmitted through generations, it is still possible to have zero growth rates consistently with a widely dispersed stable distribution of family size as well as a typical mortality regime." (SUMMARY IN FRE)

A New Look at Parents' Time Spent in Child Care: Primary and Secondary Time Use

Parental child care time has historically been narrowly defined to include only those child care activities where the parent's primary attention was occupied by the child. In this study, we expand this definition so that it includes parental reports of time where child care was a subsidiary activity. We find that suchsecondarychild care time comprises about one-third of all parental child care time. Time spent in both primary and secondary child care appear to be influenced by the gender of the parent, the age of the youngest child, the mother's hours of paid employment, household income, and residential location. Simulations suggest that mothers in two-parent, two-child families average between 13,729 and 15,439 h in the care of children from ages 0 to 18. The corresponding figures for the fathers are lower at 4150 to 4415 h.

An Examination of Parent-Child Shared Time

Data from time diaries kept by parents in two-parent, two-child families in four states in 1977 and 1978 were used to examine time shared by parents and children, as well as parent solitary times, in a number of household activities. The analysis focuses on how the mother's employment time affects shared parent-child time and whether the time was sex-typed. In addition, a weak test for whether parent-child shared time stimulates children's human capital development was devised and the hypothesis confirmed. Mothers who spent more time in market work shared less traditionally defined child-care time, but only with the older child. In contrast, as a mother's time in market work increased, parent-child shared housework and shared leisure time increased. Household activities shared by the parent and the child were sex-typed. Mothers tended to share more time with daughters in meal preparation and family-care activities, and fathers tended to share more time with their sons in activities involving the home, yard, car, and pet maintenance and in shopping activities. Using time-use data, our study examines the times parents share with their children in several activities, as well as the solitary time parents spend in the same activities. Besides documenting shared parent-child time, this article addresses three specific issues: (a) Whether parent-child shared time involves human capital development on the part of children. Human capital development includes all the processes that augment a child's cognitive, physical, and behavioral skills (Becker, 1991; Bryant, 1991). (b) Whether mothers who work outside the home share less time with children than mothers who are full-time homemakers. (c) Whether there is sex-typing in parent-child shared time (i.e., whether mothers share more time with daughters and fathers share more time with sons in certain activities). LITERATURE REVIEW Maternal Employment and Parental Child Care Research on the relationship between maternal employment, parental child care, and children's outcomes generally has taken one of three approaches. First, some researchers used information about mothers' employment as a proxy for parent-child processes and then tested to see if mothers' employment affected their children's developmental and/or schooling outcomes. Some studies found both positive and negative employment effects (Parcel & Menaghan, 1994), some found selective negative employment effects (Baydar & Brooks-Gunn, 1991; Belsky & Eggebeen, 1991; Blau & Grossberg, 1990; Desai, Chase-Lansdale, & Michael, 1989), and others found no employment effects (Leibowitz, 1977; Murnane, Maynard, & Ohls, 1981). A second body of literature, reviewed in Crouter and McHale (1993), explored how maternal employment affected parent-child activities. These studies usually found that parent-child activities varied in dual-earner and single-earner households. For example, Crouter, Perry-Jenkins, Huston, and McHale (1987) concluded that fathers in dual-earner households were more involved in child care than fathers in single-earner households. While these studies have provided rich detail regarding parent-child interactions, they typically are based on small, convenience samples that have limited generalizability. Furthermore, their measures of parent-child activities are not usually based on diary methods of data collection, which are the most reliable and valid measures of time use (Andorka, 1987; Gershuny & Robinson, 1988; Robinson, 1985, 1988). Several researchers have examined the relationship between mothers' employment and parental time spent in the direct care of children using time-diary data (Bryant & Zick, 1993; Dolan & Scannell, 1987; Gershuny & Robinson, 1988; Hill & Stafford, 1985; Sanik, 1981; Walker & Woods, 1976). These studies found that employed mothers spent less time in physical and nonphysical family care. The measures of child-related time used in these investigations were restrictive; they excluded any time that is shared with children in activities other than child care. …

Gendered differences in parents' encouragement of sibling interaction: implications for the construction of a personal premise system

Fathers' and mothers' encouragement of sibling interaction was examined in two-child families when the younger sibling was 5 weeks old and the older sibling about 22 months old and then approximately 3 months later. Concordant with the theories of J. Block (1982) and J. H. Block (1983,1984), fathers' and mothers' own linguistic behaviour as well as their encouragement of their children's behaviour reflected gender-specific patterns with fathers demonstrating as well as encouraging more accommodative or agentic patterns and mothers demonstrating as well as encouraging more assimilative or communion- enhancing patterns. Among other things, fathers more actively directed the older sibling's attention to the younger sibling, particu larly when both children were female. Likewise, fathers more than mothers more often responded to male infants' rather than female infants' movements and sounds, thus giving young boys more contin gent responsiveness which is thought to promote mastery and indepen dence. On the other hand, mothers more often vocalized to, and tried to establish contact with, the infant, especially when the older sibling present was female. Parents vocalized more often to children when mothers were paired alone with the children and fathers were paired alone with them, suggesting the importance of participation in smaller, rather than larger, family groups for the development of productive language skills. Finally, parental vocalizations, particularly those directed to the older sibling, decreased substantially over time, while parental vocalization to the infant increased over time, suggesting concerns for the quality of home linguistic environment when more children are added to the family.

Deidentification in Two-Child Families

This study investigated deidentification in relationship to self-ratings, achievement test performance, and grade point average offirst-born and second-born siblings. A sample of 47 adolescent sibling pairs from two-child families rated self and sibling on 13 semantic differential concepts. Results indicated that both first-born and second-born adolescents who judged themselves to be higher achieving that their siblings had higher self-definitions on evaluative and activity scales than did those who judged themselves equally or lower achieving. On achievement measures, however, first-borns who rated themselves as higher achieving than their sibling tended to have significantly higher achievement test scores and higher grade point averages than did other groups, but second-borns tended to have higher scores on these measures when they judged themselves to be equally achieving. These findings were interpreted as support for social comparison theory and as suggesting that intellectual performance may be more salient to first-borns than to second-borns.

How Do Only Children Differ from Other Children?

Developmental outcomes of only and non-only children, categorized by birth order and by family size, were investigated. Multiple hypotheses based on meta-analyses of the only-child literature (Falbo & Polit, 1986) were tested with independent comparison techniques. Results indicated that developmental outcomes of only children were similar to outcomes for firstborns and children from two-child families but dissimilar to outcomes for later borns and children from larger families. Furthermore, outcomes were more positive for only children, firstborns, and children from two-child families than for all other comparison groups. In agreement with Falbo and Polit, only-child deprivation and only-child uniqueness explanations for outcome differences were not supported in favor of an explanation that emphasizes qualities of the parent-child relationship. Results suggest that future comparisons to only-child outcomes should preserve the independence of contrast results and expand the only-child category to include data from firstborns and others from two-child families.

The intellectual achievement of only children.

SummaryA quantitative review of the literature on the intellectual achievement of only children indicated that only children were never at a disadvantage in relation to any comparison group; nor were they significantly different from first-born children or children from two-child families. Moreover, only children were at a significant advantage in comparison with later-born children and those from large families. The consistency of these findings across subgroups suggests that interpersonal mechanisms are largely responsible. The strong only-child advantage on tests of verbal ability, together with the overall pattern of findings, implicates parent–child interactions as responsible for the family size and birth order variations in intellectual achievement.

Child Quantity and Quality in a Developing Country: Family Background, Endogenous Tastes, and Biological Supply Factors

Previous articleNext article No AccessChild Quantity and Quality in a Developing Country: Family Background, Endogenous Tastes, and Biological Supply FactorsBarbara L. Wolfe and Jere R. BehrmanBarbara L. Wolfe Search for more articles by this author and Jere R. Behrman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 34, Number 4Jul., 1986 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/451555 Views: 2Total views on this site Citations: 14Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1986 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Qundi Feng, Chung-Ping A. Loh, Fancun Meng, Tao Bu, Qinying He The effect of a sibling on the first-born child’s health: evidence from two-child families in China, Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja 35, no.11 (Jun 2021): 676–691.https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2021.1931912Khwaja Rahman Impact of Mother's Time Allocation on Child's Health, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2011).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2830083Deon Filmer, Jed Friedman, Norbert Schady Development, Modernization, and Childbearing: The Role of Family Sex Composition, The World Bank Economic Review 23, no.33 (Oct 2009): 371–398.https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhp009Jessica Holmes Measuring the determinants of school completion in Pakistan: analysis of censoring and selection bias, Economics of Education Review 22, no.33 (Jun 2003): 249–264.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-7757(02)00024-9Simon Appleton HOW DOES FEMALE EDUCATION AFFECT FERTLITY? A STRUCTURAL MODEL FOR THE CÔTE D'IVOIRE†, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 58, no.11 (May 2009): 139–166.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.1996.mp58001007.xBarbara L. Wolfe, Jere R. Behrman The synthesis economic fertility model, Journal of Population Economics 5, no.11 (Feb 1992): 1–16.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00160326Jere R. Behrman The simple analytics of contraceptive social marketing, World Development 17, no.1010 (Oct 1989): 1499–1521.https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(89)90023-5Jere R. Behrman, Paul Taubman A test of the Easterlin fertility model using income for two generations and a comparison with the Becker model, Demography 26, no.11 (Feb 1989): 117–123.https://doi.org/10.2307/2061498PAUL W. MILLER ECONOMIC MODELS OF FERTILITY BEHAVIOUR IN AUSTRALIA*, Australian Economic Papers 27, no.5050 (Jun 1988): 65–82.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8454.1988.tb00807.xNancy Birdsall Chapter 12 Economic approaches to population growth, (Jan 1988): 477–542.https://doi.org/10.1016/S1573-4471(88)01015-0Jere R. Behrman, Anil B. Deolalikar Chapter 14 Health and nutrition, (Jan 1988): 631–711.https://doi.org/10.1016/S1573-4471(88)01017-4Jere R. Behrman, Barbara L. Wolfe Investments in schooling in two generations in pre-revolutionary Nicaragua, Journal of Development Economics 27, no.1-21-2 (Oct 1987): 395–419.https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3878(87)90024-1Barbara L. Wolfe, Jere R. Behrman Women's schooling and children's health, Journal of Health Economics 6, no.33 (Sep 1987): 239–254.https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-6296(87)90011-7Jere R. Behrman Schooling in developing countries: Which countries are the Over- and underachievers and what is the schooling impact?, Economics of Education Review 6, no.22 (Jan 1987): 111–127.https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-7757(87)90045-8

Birth-order and sex differences in the frequency of referral of children for psychological treatment: A partial replication and extension

A previous study of two-child families by Lahey, Hammer, Crumrine, and Forehand (1980) found that firstborn children were more likely to be referred for psychological treatment than second-borns and that males were more likely to be referred than females. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction between these two variables. In the present study, a new sample of two-child families from the same clinic was studied, confirming the previous findings of significant birth-order and sex effects but not the interaction. Separate analyses indicated that both birth-order and sex effects were significant for children given “externalizing” diagnoses, but only the birth-order effect was significant for heterogeneous “internalizing” diagnoses. Similarly, an analysis of only children revealed a significant sex effect for externalizers but not internalizers. A combined sample of two-child families independent of diagnosis (N=425)suggests that there are reliable associations of birth order and sex, but not the interaction, with referral rates in two-child families. Referred children were significantly more likely to have a female sibling than would be expected by chance, regardless of birth order or sex, suggesting that these children may look more deviant by comparison to female, vs. male, siblings, thus increasing the likelihood of clinic referral. The potential utility of birth order and sex as “demographic marker variables” for etiological research is discussed.

Economic Growth with Below-Replacement Fertility

A demographic Laffer curve, discovered, let us imagine, sketched on a tablecloth in the Hoover Institution canteen, tells us that sixchild families are bad for business and zero children bad for business, but somewhere in between is a fertility regime under which the economy can optimally thrive. Little more than a decade ago the US Commission on Population and the American Future explored the implications of the choice between three- and two-child families. In the economic arena the Commissioners' conclusion was unqualified: we find no convincing economic argument for continued national population growth. On the contrary most of the pluses are on the side of slower growth (US Commission, 1972: 40-41). A two-child average was to be welcomed. It soon came, and passed-with scant respect for the convention, embodied in most population projections, by which demographic transition ends comfortably on a floor of replacement-level fertility. A population commission set up in the late 1980s would have the task of examining two- versus one-child family averages-the latter, most would expect, likely to be found to lie clearly on the downward gradient of the Laffer curve. In this article I take continuing below-replacement fertility as the premise and look to identify and weigh economic outcomes that plausibly follow. My interest is in the industrialized countries, principally the United States. As in a number of prior studies, the effects of low fertility on labor supply, technological change, and investment and consumption appear relatively slight.' I shall argue, however, that there are serious, potentially adverse, economic consequences of low fertility, chiefly found in the distributional changes that are generated or accentuated under these demographic circumstances and in the international setting in which low-fertility countries will find themselves.

Quantitative review of the only child literature: Research evidence and theory development.

Six meta-analyses of the research literature on the only child were conducted in order to evaluate the status of the only child and to guide theory development in this area. The 117 studies included here generated enough information to justify six meta-analyses: Achievement Adjustment Character Intelligence Mental Illness and Sociability. Only children are found to surpass all others except firstborns and people from two-child families in Achievement and Intelligence. They also surpassed people from three- or more child families in Adjustment and Character. A model of the one-child family [is] developed that integrates the explanatory mechanisms of parental attention parental anxiety and family economic resources and emphasizes the strength of the parent-child relationship in small families. (EXCERPT)

Fertility, birth timing and marital breakdown: a reinterpretation of the evidence.

SummaryThe conventional view that childlessness was associated with higher than average risk of marital breakdown was questioned by Chester (1972) and Gibson (1980) on the basis of analysis of divorce records. Data from the 1980 General Household Survey are used to show that childless couples, and those who have children early in marriage (and are thus more likely to have large families) are considerably more at risk of breakdown at all marriage durations than delayed two-child families. The reasons for the different conclusions of these three studies are assessed and it is concluded that standardization has many unattractive features for demographic analysis (especially in areas other than mortality), and that presentations based on relative or absolute risk of breakdown allow the key features to be assessed most satisfactorily.

Editor's Introduction

Sex education is a new and important priority in the Soviet school system. While it has been long ignored as a topic held unfit for classroom discussion, such social problems as the increasing incidence of teenage pregnancy and a high national divorce rate that is concentrated in the population contracting early marriages are the reasons behind this recent interest. The increased incidence of venereal disease among young people and the widespread use of abortion as birth control in the USSR are other reasons, although little attention is given to these subjects in the material translated herein. Underlying the rationale for incorporating sex education into the school curriculum for the first time is the falling national birthrate. As pointed out by the Russian demographer V. I. Perevedentsev in last month's issue of Soviet Education, the current birthrate is insufficient to meet national manpower requirements, and three-child families will have to become the norm in the Soviet Union—in contrast with the zero-and one- or two-child families that prevail today—in order to compensate for present and projected shortfalls in the manpower supply. Public responsibility for educating new generations of young people for their future roles in family life, as married couples and parents, is being placed upon the school, and the response made to date by the public education sector to this charge is a useful illustration of how change is introduced into Soviet education.

Children and Housework

The purpose of this study was to provide information about the extent to which children participate in housework. Mothers in 105 two-parent, two-child families were interviewed. Families were randomly selected from school board records and included 115 children who were 6 through 17 years of age. Data were recorded on two 24-hour time charts. The majority of the children (88%) participated in at least one of the selected household tasks. Children participated most often in housecleaning and food preparation. The child's age, the child's sex, and the employment of the mother significantly affected the amount of time spent on housework.

Transgeneration analyses of the human sex ratio: the influence of combinations and permutations of sexes of children on family size.

Transgeneration analyses, involving the parental, present, and projected generations, were made of the human sex ratio and the influence of combinations and permutations of sexes of children on family size in a population of Western Kentucky University students and their families. The investigation included some previously studied characteristics of the population. The general conformity of the results, previous and present, suggests a high degree of repeatability within the findings. Secondary sex ratios (males: 100 females) were 106.4, 101.2, and 133.3, respectively, for the parental, present, and projected generations. Corresponding average family sizes were 4.73, 3.70, and 2.80 children. A higher percentage of one-child families included both sexes with the male being first-born, and more two-child families consisted of two males rather than two females. The two-child (male-female order) family occurred more frequently than any other family regardless of size, combination, or permutation of sexes.