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The Academic, Personality, and Physical Outcomes of Only Children in China
Author(s) -
Falbo Toni,
Poston Dudley L.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1993.tb02893.x
Subject(s) - firstborn , psychology , personality , china , developmental psychology , only child , child development , demography , social psychology , birth order , population , geography , archaeology , sociology
Representative samples of 1,000 schoolchildren from 4 Chinese provinces were surveyed to compare the outcomes of only children to those of firstborn and later‐born children. The children's ages ranged from 8 to 17 years, with half of the sample in the third grade and the other half in the sixth grade. 3 types of outcomes were considered. In terms of academics, differences between only children and others were found in 3 of the 4 provincial samples, with onlies being most likely to outscore others in verbal tests. In terms of personality evaluations, very few only‐child effects were found. In 2 of the 4 provincial samples, only children were found to be taller or to weigh more than others. Taken together, these results suggest that the one‐child policy in China is not producing a generation of “little emperors.”