Many children grow up shy while others are more social. It has often been wondered if having siblings makes a difference in how the child interacts socially. A study was conducted by Ohio State University sampling 13,000 children ages 11-18 years of age. They found that there was no difference in social skill of kids that had siblings vs kids who did not.
The one thing I found frustrating when looking at the research conducted to determine if children better suited socially if they have siblings, was that I found very few studies on the topic. The other think I found frustrating was that I don't think this study was very well conducted. They had the children pick five boys and five girls that were their friends. The problem with this is that they are studying popularity rather than social skills. In my opinion, there is a difference in popularity and social skills. I wish the study that was conducted out look more at how the child interacts with his or her peers.
I know how my sister has impacted my life and I know siblings have impacted other peoples lives. Even though it may not affect a child's popularity it would be interesting to see if there is a correlation in personality traits like empathy and shyness.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10967749
http://www.celebrities-with-diseases.com/news-health/friendship-no-different-for-only-children-says-research-7133.html
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This would bean excellent study to follow up on i think. I think the social interaction between children and there siblings is huge! I guess i am somewhat a prime example,... When i was growing up, Both my sister and my brother weren't really around. Being the baby of the family i was pretty much left alone when my siblings went off to do their own thing. So i feel i was pretty much raised by my brother in law. I think he had the biggest influence on how i was brought up.
ReplyDeleteI probably wouldn't have any real social skills if it wasn't for him.