Parents In Children: The Effects Of An Only Child

Chances are – you have at least one sibling (if you’re American) . Chances are even greater that they have something they can do way better than you. Don’t worry however, you probably have something you excelled in, that your sibling didn’t. Think about why it might have been your forte. Was it because what your siblings were good at was already taken? Now consider this: what if you were an only child? Instead of having one thing to be good at, you would probably be multi-faceted. This is the case of the Chinese girl from the documentary, 2 Million Minutes, who is an only child, and is indisputably amazing. 2 Million Minutes follows 6 different students – a boy and a girl from America, China, and India – as they apply to colleges. The documentary
According to Dr. Nina Howe, and Dr. Holly Recchia, there are four main parts of a sibling relationship in the early stages. The first one is that sibling interactions tend to be “strong, uninhibited emotions of a positive, negative and sometimes ambivalent quality”. The second one is based around the fact that siblings have such a tight bond from the fact that they spend all their time with each other. The third is that each sibling will have different amounts of effort put into each sibling relationship, creating a gap. The fourth is the age difference between children – this can either make it or break it. An age difference means there could be a power struggle between siblings, or there could be a support system
According to Jensen, Alexander C., and Mchale, in a study done to examine the relationship between parents beliefs in their children and their academic success, parents who believed one child was smarter than the other saw that that child outperformed their sibling the following year. Conversely, the parents who thought that one child was not as competent as the other saw that that child did not do as well as the other sibling. They speculate that this might be because the children pick up on these expectations from their parents, and work to fill those expectations. In the case of an only child, this effect would not take place – parents can expect their one child to do well. The child would not face competition in the household, where those with more than one child