Number of Siblings in Childhood, Social Outcomes in Adulthood

• In Event: 381 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 04. Family Size

Abstract

In many parts of the world, fertility has declined in important ways in the last century. How does this matter? 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 one grew up with, the likelihood of ever having divorced as an adult declined by three percent (Bobbitt-Zeher, Downey, and Merry 2014). Vulnerability to divorce between those growing up in small versus large sibships, therefore, could vary by fifteen percent or more. Although this earlier study was based on a large national sample (~50,000 Americans from the General Social Surveys), it is unclear yet whether this pattern is robust and whether the benefits of siblings during childhood extend to other aspects of adulthood. We expand this previous work by: (1) determining whether the original pattern replicates among two high-quality nationally representative datasets-- the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) -- and (2) extending the analysis beyond divorce to consider whether growing up with siblings is related to other pro-social adult behaviors (e.g., relationships with friends, membership in voluntary organizations, obligations to aging parents). Our results confirm a negative association between number of siblings and divorce in adulthood, although the patterns vary by dataset. We also find mixed outcomes related to other pro-social adult behaviors.

Authors

• Joseph Merry, Furman University

• Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, The Ohio State University

• Douglas B. Downey, Ohio State University