Comparative Study of Behavioral Qualities of Only Children and Sibling Children

Measuring Adolescent Psychopathology: Psychometric Properties of the Self-Report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a Sample of Chinese Adolescents

“…This finding contradicts previous research suggesting that a collectivistic value orientation, a characteristic of Chinese culture, is positively related to prosocial behavior [34]. Considering that more than one-half of our participants are the only child in their family and that only-children in the current sample reported significantly lower scores on prosocial subscale than did non-only-children (t ¼ À8.52, p <.001), which was the only difference in terms of subscale scores between only-children and children with siblings in the current sample, the reported lower levels of prosocial behavior might be related to only-children, a group that has previously been found to display higher levels of egocentric and selfish behavior than children with siblings [35]. However, it is necessary to note that ''only-children'' is not a homogeneous category [36]; social and economic factors should be taken into account, so this particular sample may not be representative of the population.…”

Life Satisfaction, Perceived Health, Violent and Altruistic Behaviour of Hong Kong Chinese Adolescents: Only Children Versus Children with Siblings

“…Chinese psychologists and sociologists have conducted research on only child. Their results mostly reinforced Falbo's conclusions: only children were similar to children with siblings in psychological attributes like adjustment, sociability, and in the area of academic skills, only children tended to perform better (Yang et al 1980;Poston and Yu 1985;Xiao and Zhang 1985); but in the area of personality, they produced contrasting results (Chen 1985;Jiao et al 1986). Poston and Falbo (1990) argued that the Chinese research used rather rudimentary and undeveloped instruments to assess the children's personalities, and did not apply multivariate statistical techniques to control key risk factors in the analysis.…”

“…Howe and Madgett (1975) and Makihara et al (1998) found higher chance of mental health problems for only child. Jiao et al (1986) confirmed only child tended to be egocentric and uncooperative. Thompson (1974) found some negative social behaviour among the only children.…”

The Only Child: Is There Only One Kind of Only?

“…In the past, a number of studies of only children have described them as self-centered, maladjusted, lonely, and disadvantaged (Blake, 1974;Fenton, 1928;Jiao, Ji, & Jing, 1986;Rosenberg & Leino, 1987; Thompson, 1974), and so it comes as no surprise to find one type of only child that reflects the outcomes and views of prior literature.…”

“…This literature provides examples of the only child's behavior problems and personality difficulties (Blake, 1974;Jiao, Ji, & Jing, 1986;Petzhold, 1988;Rosenberg & Falk, 1989;Rosenberg & Leino, 1987;Thompson, 1974;Westoff, 1978). These and other studies attested to the only child's lack of sociability (Claudy, 1984), greater than expected incidence of mental health problems (Belmont, 1977;Howe & Madgett, 1975;Makihara, Nagoya, & Nakajima, 1988), persistent egocentrism and uncooperativeness (Jiao, Ji, & Jing, 1986), negative social behaviors (Petzhold, 1988;Thompson, 1974), and lack of friends (Graham-Bermann & Gest, 1991;Miller & Maruyama, 1976).…”