Parental Response to Only Children: Breaking the Stereotypes

Abstract

While much has been written about the relationship between only child status and parents’ behavior toward children, and consequent personality and intelligence, little is known about the relationship between only child status, parental response to illness, and subsequent child illness behavior. In this study, 227 mothers of 342 children completed measures designed to assess: (a) their children’s school attendance, (b) their own psychological status, and (c) their own responses to their children’s expressions of stomach pain. Parents of only children were more likely to minimize their children’s gastrointestinal symptoms than were parents of children with at least one sibling. In addition, only children were less likely to miss school. Parental protectiveness did not differ as a function of only child status. These findings are somewhat discrepant with commonly held beliefs about parents’ patterns of responding to only children.

Risk factors for school-based presenteeism in children: a systematic review

“…Most studies were conducted in the UK (39%, n = 7) [ 26 – 31 ] followed by US (28%, n = 5) [ 32 – 36 ] and Canada (11%, n = 2) [ 37 , 38 ]. Three countries had one study only: Australia [ 39 ], Norway [ 40 ], and Switzerland [ 41 ].…”

“…A variety of study designs were used, including quantitative (61%, n = 11) (cross-sectional survey [ 32 – 36 , 38 , 40 , 41 , 43 ], discrete choice experiment [ 26 ], repeated measures [ 42 ]); qualitative (22%, n = 4) (interviews [ 27 , 39 ], ethnography [ 28 , 29 ]); and mixed-methods (17%, n = 3) [ 30 , 31 , 37 ].…”

“…Parents and school staff were the participants in most studies (39%, n = 7) [ 30 – 35 , 37 ], followed by studies that investigated parents (28%, n = 5) [ 26 , 27 , 29 , 36 , 39 ], children (17%, n = 3) [ 40 , 42 , 43 ] and school staff (17%, n = 3) [ 28 , 38 , 41 ] individually.…”

“…Presenteeism was reported in five different school settings: formal pre-school (for children five years and under) (56%, n = 10) [ 26 , 27 , 30 , 32 – 35 , 38 , 39 , 41 ]; formal and informal pre-school (11%, n = 2) [ 31 , 37 ]; primary school (children aged five to 11 years) (11%, n = 2) [ 28 , 29 ]; secondary school (children aged 11 to 19 years) (17%, n = 3) [ 40 , 42 , 43 ]; and a non-specified school setting in which children were aged between eight and 15 years (5%, n = 1) [ 36 ].…”

The effect of CEOs’ being the only children in the family on their CSR engagement

“…Corporate giving is associated with altruistic intentions and behaviors of firms and their managers. Traditionally, only children were stereotyped as being “selfish and spoiled” known as the “only child syndrome.” However, recent research suggest that although being prevalent, this stereotypical view of only children has no scientific evidence but instead has been proven inaccurate (Levy et al , 2021; Zheng et al , 2022). Our study builds upon the existing research, which primarily relies on samples of children, by incorporating stock market data that reflects the outcomes of adulthood decisions made by only children.…”