ABSTRACT
In many parts of the world, fertility has declined in important ways in the last century. What are the consequences of this demographic change? Our study expands the empirical basis for understanding the relationship between number of siblings in childhood and social outcomes among adults. An important recent study found that for each additional sibling an individual grows up with, the likelihood of divorce as an adult declines by three percent. We expand this work by: (1) determining whether the original pattern replicates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and (2) extending the analysis beyond divorce to consider whether growing up with siblings is related to pro-social adult behaviors (relationships with parents, friends, and views on conflict management with one's partner). Our results confirm a negative association between number of siblings and divorce in adulthood. We find mixed results related to other pro-social adult behaviors.
ABSTRACT
Despite fertility decline across economically developed countries, relatively little is known about the social consequences of children being raised with fewer siblings. Much research suggests that growing up with fewer siblings is probably positive, as children tend to do better in school when sibship size is small. Less scholarship, however, has explored how growing up with few siblings influences children's ability to get along with peers and develop long-term meaningful relationships. If siblings serve as important social practice partners during childhood, individuals with few or no siblings may struggle to develop successful social lives later in adulthood. With data from the General Social Surveys 1972-2012, we explore this possibility by testing whether sibship size during childhood predicts the probability of divorce in adulthood. We find that, among those who ever marry, each additional sibling is associated with a three percent decline in the likelihood of divorce, net of covariates.
