The Interpersonal Skillsof Children without Siblings

Many parents may thinkthat each new sibling（兄弟姐妹）offers their children the gift of companionship.But while we tend tothink that siblings teach one another conflict

resolution and other、interpersonal skills,new researchsays they are no better off socially than children without siblings.

"Most studies lookat the negative consequences of having siblings in terms of educational outcome,"saidDonna Bobbitt-Zeher,lead author of Good for Nothing?Number of

Siblings and FriendshipNominations Among Adolescents."But we decided to look at social skills to seeif there was any other possible benefit to having brothers or

sisters."She andher co-author,Douglas Downey are sociologists at OhioState's Marion campus,and neither is an only child.Theypresented their findings at the annual

meeting of the AmericanSociological Association in August.

The paper is in largepart a reply to a previous study,Playing Well With Others in Kindergarten.The Benefitsof Siblings at Home,also co-authored by Dr. Downey,which

found that kindergartenteachers rated children without siblings worse in interpersonal skills,self-controland problem behaviors.

But an only child isn'tnecessarily a loner and misfit.First,the social advantages found in children withsiblings in the kindergarten study were quite modest. Second,the study

relied on teacher evaluations,andteachers may not be reliable judges of friendships among their charges.

And now it seems thatany benefits documented in kindergarten disappear altogether by middle school. Usinga metric called"peer nomination（提名）",Dr. Downeyand Dr.

Bobbitt Zeher found thatchildren without siblings had just as many friends as children with siblings.

"I see the two studiesas a natural progression,showing what happens to the only children who didn't havemuch interaction before kindergarten,"Dr. Downey said.Another

study he is working onshows that the same only children evaluated in kindergarten had caught up by fifthgrade.

While the studies don'texamine the cause for the disappearing social boost to kindergartners with siblings,Dr.Downey speculates that continuing school,youth clubs and

other group activities一especially in an era of overscheduled children一provide sufficient opportunity for onlys to sharpen their skills.The stereotype towardchildren with siblings is that their social skills are_______.

A.helpful to improvethe only childrens' social skills

B.better than the onlychildrens'

C.beneficial to childrenin any other ways

D.complete

E.unfair