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Title: Effects of Siblings on Cognitive and Sociobehavioral Development: Ongoing Debates and New Theoretical Insights
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Yu, Wei-hsin Xu Yan, Hope |
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Effects of Siblings on Cognitive and Sociobehavioral Development: Ongoing Debates and New Theoretical Insights American Sociological Review 88,6 (November 2023). Also: https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224231210258 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: American Sociological Association Keyword(s): Behavioral Development; Behavioral Problems; Cognitive Ability; Cognitive Development; Family Characteristics; Family Dynamics; Family Environment; Family Resources; Family Size; Sibling Birth Order; Siblings; Sociobehavioral Development Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Despite social scientists’ long-standing interest in the influences of siblings, previous research has not settled the debates on how relevant sibship size is to child development and whether growing up with more siblings could be beneficial. Using 30 years of longitudinal data and fixed-effects models, this study offers the most comprehensive evidence on how sibship size is tied to cognitive and sociobehavioral development. We also advance the literature by systematically comparing the consequences of gaining a sibling for children with varying ordinal positions. Contrary to prior studies using selective data from limited observation spans, we find that children experience net decreases in cognitive test scores as their family size grows. At the same time, our analysis shows that sibling additions are only important to first- and second-born children’s—not later-born children’s—cognitive development. Even for the first- and second-born, the marginal effect of adding a sibling lessens with each addition. Our results thus demonstrate the time-dependent nature of family resource-dilution processes. For sociobehavioral development, the evidence indicates that having an older sibling is beneficial, but gaining a younger sibling increases behavioral problems for some (e.g., first-born children). Because more children from large families have older siblings, children from larger families exhibit less problematic behavior, on average. By uncovering the complex relationship between siblings and noncognitive development, this study also generally contributes to the sociology of family and inequality. |
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Bibliography Citation
Yu, Wei-hsin and Hope Xu Yan. "Effects of Siblings on Cognitive and Sociobehavioral Development: Ongoing Debates and New Theoretical Insights." American Sociological Review 88,6 (November 2023).
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