Intelligence and family size.

Why are cognitive abilities of children so different across countries? The link between major socioeconomic factors and PISA test scores

“…In contrast, the resourcedilution hypothesis claims that the growing dilution of parental resources in a large family is the grounds for why children with fewer siblings are more educated and healthier than those with larger sibship size (e.g. Anastasi, 1956;Blake, 1981Blake, , 1985Blake, , 1989Downey, 2001;Steelman, Powell, Werum & Carter, 2002). As the sibship size expands, the amount of parental income and other resources allocated to each child in the family shrinks.…”

The Effects of Family Structure on the Educational Attainment of Siblings in Hungary

“…This observation makes it possible to formulate explanatory hypotheses on the association between family structure and educational attainment. These hypotheses originate from sibling resource-dilution theory (Anastasi, 1956;Blake, 1981;Powell and Steelman, 1990). Resource-dilution theory states that an increase in the number of siblings and a decrease in their spacing dilute the resources that parents can spend on each child.…”

Sponsoring the Next Generation: Parental Willingness to Pay for Higher Education

“…In hypothesizing which factors should be related to parental investment, we borrow from the human capital tradition (Becker 1964(Becker , 1967(Becker , 1981; Becker and Tomes 1976; Taubman and Behrman 1986), the statusattainment model (Blau and Duncan 1967;Sewell and Hauser 1976), and the resource-dilution hypothesis (Anastasi 1956;Blake 1989). Advanced by economists, human capital theory investigates the investments, sacrifices, bequests, and time inputs that parents make on behalf of their children.…”

“…The last perspective guiding this research is the resource-dilution hypothesis that focuses on the nexus between sibship size and resource distribution (Blake 1989;Anastasi 1956). Although sibship size is acknowledged in sociological research as a predictor of various status outcomes, it is rarely brought to the forefront.…”