The (Conditional) Resource Dilution Model: A Family-level Modification

• In Event: 3581 - Section on Sociology of Children and Youth Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 04. Children, Youth, and Institutions

Abstract

The negative relationship between sibship size and educational outcomes has been well documented in social science literature. The majority of studies to date have examined this relationship from the theoretical perspective of the resource dilution model, focusing on the ever-greater division of parental economic resources and time within the nuclear family as the number of children grows. Building upon this model, the conditional resource dilution model posits that the sibsize effect is conditioned by the context surrounding the family unit. Utilizing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth – 1997 Cohort, we extend the conditional resource dilution model by examining whether the effect of sibsize is conditioned by family type.

Authors

• Jared Thorpe, Brigham Young University

• Mikaela Dufur, Brigham Young University