Only Children
Alfred Adler (1870–1937) believed that "only children" were likely to experience a variety of problems from their situation. Adler theorized that because only children have no rivals for their parents' affection, they will become pampered and spoiled, particularly by the mother. He suggested that this could later cause interpersonal difficulties if the person is not universally liked and admired.
A 1987 quantitative review of 141 studies on 16 different personality traits contradicted Adler's theory. This research found no evidence of any "spoilage" or other pattern of maladjustment in only children. The major finding was that only children are not very different from children with siblings. The main exception to this was the finding that only children are generally higher in achievement motivation. A second analysis revealed that only children, first-borns, and children with only one sibling score higher on tests of verbal ability than later-borns and children with multiple siblings.
Read more about this topic: Spoiled
Famous quotes containing the word children:
“It is said that when manners are licentious, a revolution is always near: the virtue of woman being the main girth and bandage of society; because a man will not lay up an estate for children any longer than whilst he believes them to be his own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The shift from the perception of the child as innocent to the perception of the child as competent has greatly increased the demands on contemporary children for maturity, for participating in competitive sports, for early academic achievement, and for protecting themselves against adults who might do them harm. While children might be able to cope with any one of those demands taken singly, taken together they often exceed children’s adaptive capacity.”
—David Elkind (20th century)