scholarly journals Cohort Trends in the Association Between Sibship Size and Educational Attainment in 26 Low-Fertility Countries

Demography ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 1035-1062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seongsoo Choi ◽  
Riley Taiji ◽  
Manting Chen ◽  
Christiaan Monden
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Sibship Size

scholarly journals Sibship Size and Educational Attainment: Evidence of Cohort Trends from 26 Low-Fertility Countries

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seongsoo Choi ◽  
Riley Taiji ◽  
Manting Chen ◽  
Christiaan Willem Simon Monden
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Birth Cohort ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Comparative Data ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Sibship Size ◽  
Differential Fertility ◽  
Substantial Role ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Over Time

Children with many siblings have lower average educational attainment compared to children raised in smaller families. This disadvantage by sibship size has been observed across many different countries. We know remarkable little, however, about how sibship size disadvantage has changed over time within countries and how such trends vary between countries. Using comparative data from 114 surveys from 26 low-fertility countries, we find an increase of the sibsize disadvantage over time in the majority of countries: between the 1931-40 birth cohort and the 1971-80 birth cohort, 16 out of 26 countries showed a statistically significant increase in the sibship size disadvantage in education, while only two countries – Australia and the UK – showed a statistically measurable reduction in the sibship size disadvantage. In many countries, growing differential fertility by parental education played a substantial role in the increasing disadvantage. We discuss possible explanations and implications of the increased disadvantages and the variation in trends and levels between regions and specific countries.

scholarly journals No evidence that middleborns feel less close to family and closer to friends than other birth orders.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Simanko ◽  
Ben Rimmer ◽  
Thomas Victor Pollet
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Birth Order ◽  
Opposite Direction ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Sibship Size ◽  
Emotional Closeness

Middleborns have been argued to be the neglected birth order. The present study aimed to test whether the emotional closeness to parents, siblings or friends differed between middleborns and otherborns, across two different datasets. Using a between family design this study accounted for gender, nationality, educational attainment, age and sibship size via matching. We found no evidence to suggest that middleborns differ from otherborns in familial sentiment. The sign of closeness to friends was in the opposite direction than predicted, with middleborns being less close than other birth orders. The findings are discussed with reference to current literature on birth order and familial sentiment.

Sibship size and educational attainment of Canadian baby boomers

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Dilmaghani
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Baby Boomers ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Baby Boom ◽  
Sibship Size ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Surveys ◽  
Female Baby

PurposeThe present study assesses how sibship size affects child quality as measured by educational attainment.Design/methodology/approachThe data are from the Canadian General Social Surveys (GSS) of 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1995. The sample is restricted to the individuals born in Canada between 1946 and 1965, that is, the baby-boom generation. In addition to controlling for parental education, the sibship size is instrumented by a non-binary variable created based on the sex composition of the sibship. While most previous studies have pooled both genders, the present paper produces by gender estimatesFindingsThe OLS estimates are statistically significant, negative and moderately large for both male and female baby boomers. When the sibship size is instrumented, the estimates indicate that one additional sibling had reduced the educational attainment of male baby boomers by almost half a year. No causal effect for the sibship size is found for female baby boomers.Originality/valueThis is the first paper on the effects of sibship size on educational attainment, using Canadian data.

scholarly journals Morphometric traits predict educational attainment independently of socioeconomic background

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Valge ◽  
Richard Meitern ◽  
Peeter Hõrak
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Socioeconomic Background ◽  
Cumulative Probability ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Exact Nature ◽  
Morphometric Traits

Abstract Background Aim of this study is to describe the relationship between anthropometric traits and educational attainment among Estonian schoolchildren born between 1937 and 1962. We asked whether height, cranial volume and face width (a testosterone-dependent trait), measured in childhood predict later educational attainment independently of each other, family socioeconomic position (SEP) and sex. Associations between morphometric traits and education and their interactions with biosocial variables are of scholarly importance because higher education is nearly universally associated with low fertility in women, and often with high fertility in men. Hence, morphometric traits associated with educational attainment are targeted by natural selection and describing the exact nature of these associations is relevant for understanding the current patterns of evolution of human body size. Methods Data on morphometric measurements and family background of 11,032 Estonian schoolchildren measured between seven and 19 years of age were obtained from the study performed by Juhan Aul between 1956 and 1969. Ordinal logistic regression was used for testing the effects of morphometric traits, biosocial variables and their interaction on the cumulative probability of obtaining education beyond primary level. Results Of biosocial variables, family SEP was the most important determinant of educational attainment, followed by the sex, rural vs urban origin and the number of siblings. No significant interactions with morphometric traits were detected, i.e., within each category of SEP, rural vs urban origin and sex, taller children and those with larger heads and relatively narrower faces were more likely to proceed to secondary and/or tertiary education. The effect of height on education was independent of cranial volume, indicating that taller children did not obtain more educations because their brains were larger than those of shorter children; height per se was important. Conclusions Our main finding – that adjusting for other morphometric traits and biosocial variables, morphometric traits still robustly predicted educational attainment, is relevant for understanding the current patterns of evolution of human body size. Our findings suggest that fecundity selection acting on educational attainment could be partly responsible for the concurrent selection for smaller stature and cranial volume in women and opposite trends in men.

scholarly journals Analysing Effects of Birth Order on Intelligence, Educational Attainment, Big Five, and Risk Aversion in an Indonesian Sample

2020 ◽  
pp. per.2285
Author(s):  
Laura J. Botzet ◽  
Julia M. Rohrer ◽  
Ruben C. Arslan
Keyword(s):  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Birth Order ◽  
Big Five ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Sibship Size ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Linear Pattern ◽  
Universal Family ◽  
Non Linear

Few studies have examined birth order effects on personality in countries that are not Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD). However, theories have generally suggested that interculturally universal family dynamics are the mechanism behind birth order effects, and prominent theories such as resource dilution would predict even stronger linear effects in poorer countries. Here, we examine a subset of up to 11 188 participants in the Indonesian Family Life Survey to investigate whether later–borns differ from earlier–borns in intelligence, educational attainment, Big Five, and risk aversion. Analyses were performed using within–family designs in mixed–effects models. In model comparisons, we tested for linear and non–linear birth order effects as well as for possible interactions of birth order and sibship size. Our estimated effect sizes are consistent with the emerging account of birth order as having relatively little impact on intelligence, Big Five, and risk aversion. We found a non–linear pattern for educational attainment that was not robust to imputation of missing data and not aligned with trends in WEIRD countries. Overall, the small birth order effects reported in other studies appear to be culturally specific. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology

A demographic factor as a determinant of migration: what is the effect of sibship size on migration decisions?

2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
pp. 321-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianmei Zhao ◽  
Hai Zhong
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Internal Migration ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Fertility Rates ◽  
Sibship Size ◽  
Elderly Parents ◽  
Migration Decisions ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Aging Populations ◽  
Positive Effect

AbstractDeveloping countries often lack an adequate social security system, and elderly parents rely heavily on their children for support. Aging populations and low-fertility rates are an emerging trend in developing countries. In this paper, we examine the effects of sibship size on individuals' internal migration decisions in China. We find that the number of siblings has a positive effect on individual migration decisions, but this effect is non-linear and marginally increasing. Second, we find that having brothers has a more significant effect on migration decisions than having sisters. Finally, although of different magnitudes, the effects are persistent across genders, Hukou status, and education levels.

scholarly journals Effects of Birth Order on Intelligence, Educational Attainment, Personality, and Risk Aversion in an Indonesian Sample

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Botzet ◽  
Julia Marie Rohrer ◽  
Ruben C. Arslan
Keyword(s):  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Birth Order ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Sibship Size ◽  
Resource Dilution ◽  
Universal Family ◽  
Intelligence Education

Few studies have examined birth order effects on personality in countries that are not Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD), even though theories have generally suggested interculturally universal family dynamics as the mechanism behind birth order effects, and prominent theories such as resource dilution would even predict stronger effects in poorer countries. Here, we investigate a subset of up to 11,188 participants of the Indonesian Family Life Survey, an ongoing representative panel study, to study whether later-born siblings differ from earlier-borns in intelligence, educational attainment, personality, and risk aversion. Analyses were performed using within-family designs in mixed-effects models. In model comparisons we tested for linear and non-linear birth order effects as well as for possible interactions of birth order and sibship size. Our estimated effect sizes are consistent with the emerging account of birth order as having relatively little impact on intelligence, education, personality, and risk aversion; and they exclude recent estimates from WEIRD populations based on large sample sizes. Thus, even the small effects of birth order reported in other studies appear to be culturally specific.

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