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The physical, achievement, and personality characteristics of Chinese schoolchildren are evaluated. The results of two surveys of Chinese schoolchildren, conducted in Beijing and Jilin Province, are presented. In the Beijing sample, the differences between only children and others were small but statistically significant, with the only children having higher scores in achievement and physical size. In the Jilin Province sample, the differences between only children and others were also small but significant. These differences were found entirely in physical characteristics, with only children being smaller, perhaps because the only children in the Jilin sample were much younger than the non-only children. Analyses of the combined sample of Beijing and Jilin schoolchildren indicated that the only-child advantages in achievement were found among children from urban families, not rural peasant families. While significant differences in height and weight were found in all three samples, none of the results indicated a significant difference in the proportion of body fat. None of the analyses indicated that only children had undesirable personalities, as judged by teachers and mothers.

142 first‐ and 188 fifth‐grade only children and children with siblings from the Beijing area were given 11 cognitive tasks to investigate the difference in cognitive abilities that may exist due to the special conditions resulting from the Chinese 1‐child family planning program. Overall superiority of grade 1 only children over children with siblings appeared in cognitive abilities involving memory processes, language skills, and mathematics. No differences existed for perceptual tasks. However, the differences in cognitive abilities between only children and children with siblings at grade 5 were less prominent than at grade 1. The cognitive superiority of these younger Chinese only children over children with siblings may be explained by the fact that the fifth‐grade only children were born before 1980 when the 1‐child family planning program was not strongly enforced. Parents may have tended to treat these children and children with siblings alike. In contrast, the first‐grade only children were born at a time of government policy intervention that resulted in special investment in these children by parents and elders, suggesting the possibility of a time‐related cohort effect.

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