The One-Child Family in the United States: Research Issues and Results

Abstract

The developmental outcomes of only children in the US have been found to be greatly affected by 4 groups of factors: 1) the strong cultural expectation that only children are selfish, lonely and maladjusted. These beliefs can influence the judgments of observers and even cause the expected behavior. 2) The voluntariness of having a single child. In the past, Americans choosing to have 1 child were few and tended to be somewhat deviant. Women involuntarily having 1 child came from more traditional backgrounds and were unhappy because of their failure to fulfill their fertility desires. 3) the number of adults in the family unit. In the US the incidence of single parents is higher for 1-child families. The widely accepted confluence model of intellectual development suggests that the more adults and fewer children that live in the home, the greater the child's intellectual development. 4) The age of the child studied. It seems likely that the differences between only children and others vary according to the age of the child, and that maturation and family size have an interacting influence on social development. 3 recent studies have shown that only children in the US are advantaged in terms of educational attainment. 4 recent literature reviews have concluded that only children are no different from others in personality characteristics. They appear from research results to be no more lonely or maladjusted than other children, although they may be less sociable. The concept of selfishness is difficult to operationalize and measure objectively: the flawed studies attempting to do so have yielded mixed evidence regarding the selfishness of only children.

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