Investigates relationships between family structure variables and 17 measures describing children's intellectual, psychosocial, and physical growth. Subjects were a 10 percent random sample of a Danish cohort consisting of children born in a Copenhagen hospital between September 1959 and December 1961; 857 subjects were followed to age 19.…

Discusses the research debate over the question whether intelligence diminishes as a function of birth order. Presents a study of Zimbabwean children confirming the general downward trend of intelligence as a function of birth order. Addresses the influence of family size. (DB)

Discusses the controversy of the relationship between birth order and intellectual performance through a detailed evaluation of the confluence model which assumes that the rate of intellectual growth is a function of the intellectual environment within the family and associated with the special circumstances of last children. (CM)

A brief review of the psychological literature on the characteristics of only children is presented in order to determine if the one-child family should be avoided or advocated. The relevant literature is found to be limited in quantity and conceptualization of the only child. Previous literature is divided into three types of study: those with…

Declining family size plus the widespread belief that only children experience adjustment difficulties provided the impetus for this investigation comparing the characteristics of only children with children raised in multiple-sibling families. Results indicated that being reared as an only child actually provided a slight developmental advantage…