Only children receive more attention from their parents, and they receive more careful parenting. The children grow up in a richer intellectual environment, impacting their behavior and actions. An article by Business Insider states that only children will also perform better in school, saying “Researcher Toni Falbo at the University of Texas has found that only children tend to have high self-esteem and typically perform better in school and get more post-secondary education than other kids.” However, later in life, only children may become selfish and entitled due to all the attention they received in their childhood.
I find this concept interesting because I am an only child who grew up with friends who had siblings. I always believed that my academic ability was solely due to my culture versus my status as an only child. In the article you cited it says, ” With regard to intellectual ability and success, only children are much like first-borns, since they receive the undivided attention of parents and grow up in a richer intellectual environment”. I find this specific quote interesting because, from an outside perspective, I would assume that having siblings would create some competition when it comes to academics. In this article, I found it discusses similar effects of being an only child but in this case, it discusses something called “Only Child Syndrome” which has some negative traits associated with it but overall is false. I wonder if it would be worth discussing if there is some kind of link between this stereotype and how a person may feel like they need to “prove themself” in academic performance to disprove this stereotype.