Merry Joseph, Bobbitt-Zeher Donna, Downey Douglas
Furman University, Department of Sociology, Johns Hall 106F, 3300 Poinsett Highway, Greenville, SC 29613.
The Ohio State University, Department of Sociology, Morrill Hall 364, 1465 Mt. Vernon Avenue, Marion, OH 43302.
J Fam Issues. 2020 Feb;41(2):212-234. doi: 10.1177/0192513x19873356. Epub 2019 Aug 31.
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 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.
在过去的一个世纪里,世界上许多地区的生育率在诸多重要方面都有所下降。这种人口结构变化会带来哪些后果呢?我们的研究拓展了实证依据,有助于理解童年时期的兄弟姐妹数量与成年人社会结局之间的关系。最近一项重要研究发现,一个人成长过程中每多一个兄弟姐妹,其成年后离婚的可能性就会降低3%。我们通过以下方式拓展了这项研究:(1)确定原始模式在[具体地区]是否重现;(2)将分析范围从离婚扩展到考虑与兄弟姐妹一起成长是否与成年人的亲社会行为(与父母、朋友的关系以及对与伴侣冲突管理的看法)有关。我们的研究结果证实了兄弟姐妹数量与成年后离婚之间存在负相关关系。对于其他亲社会的成年行为,我们得到了喜忧参半的结果。