For: Only Child (musician) An only child is a child with no siblings, either biological or adopted. Although first-born children may be considered temporary only children, and have a similar early family environment, the term only child is generally applied only to those individuals who never have siblings. Children with much older siblings may also have a similar family environment to only children.
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For: Only Child (musician) An only child is a child with no siblings, either biological or adopted. Although first-born children may be considered temporary only children, and have a similar early family environment, the term only child is generally applied only to those individuals who never have siblings. Children with much older siblings may also have a similar family environment to only children.
Families may have an only child for a variety of reasons, including financial issues, stress in the family, time constraints, fears over pregnancy, advanced age, infertility, or death of a sibling. Additionally, some parents decide to have only one child because they simply prefer it that way. In China, parents are encouraged to have only one child with the One-child policy.
In Western culture, only children are often subject to a stereotype that equates them with spoiled brats. However, there are no significant differences with other childrenFact: date=April 2009.
Stereotypes
G. Stanley Hall was one of the first experts to give only children a bad reputation when he referred to their situation as "a disease in itself." Even today, only children are commonly stereotyped as "spoiled, selfish and bratty."The Only Child Myth, By Juju Chang and Sara Holmberg, ABC News, Retrieved on August 25th, 2008. Susan Newman, a social psychologist at Rutgers University and the author of Parenting an Only Child, says that this is a myth. "People articulate that only children are spoiled, they're aggressive, they're bossy, they're lonely, they're maladjusted," she said. The reality, according to Newman, is that "there have been hundreds and hundreds of research studies that show that only children are no different from their peers."
Adler's theory
Alfred Adler (1870-1937), an Austrian psychiatrist and a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, was another early theorist who believed that only children were deficient. He argued that birth order leaves an indelible impression on an individual's style of life - that is, the individual's habitual way of dealing with the tasks of friendship, love, and work. Adler believed that because only children have no rivals for their parents' affection, they may be pampered and spoiled by their parents, particularly the mother. He suggested that this could later cause interpersonal difficulties if the person is not universally liked and admired.
Scientific research
A 1987 quantitative review of 141 studies on 16 different personality traits contradicted Adler's theory by finding no evidence of any maladjustment in only children. The most important finding was that only children are not very different from children with siblings. The main exception to this was the finding that only children are higher in achievement motivation. A second analysis revealed that only children, first-borns, and children with only one sibling score higher on tests of verbal ability than later-borns and children with multiple siblings.
