Recent research on children. (1) Brothers and sisters who argue a lot can improve their language, social skills and outcomes:
Guardian article;
paper on part of the research (pdf). (2) First findings from
Understanding Society. Conclusions include: the unhappiness of children’s mothers with their partners affect children’s happiness, but this is not the case if children’s fathers are unhappy in their relationships; having older brothers or sisters doesn’t appear to affect children’s happiness, but having younger brothers or sisters is associated with less happiness; not living with both natural parents has a greater negative impact on a young person’s life satisfaction than their material situation. (3) A longitudinal study on people now in their forties has found that for these people reading is linked to career success, though not necessarily to better pay, whilst playing computer games and doing no other activities was associated with less likelihood of going to university. In particular, those who owned a ZX Spectrum or Commodore C64 were less likely to go to university.
thinq interview with researcher.
Guardian article.
Telegraph article. (4) Poll about children’s attitudes to losing in sport.
Press release.
Data from children’s survey.
Data from parents’ survey. (All three are PDFs.)
posted by paduasoy
on Apr 9, 2011 -
30 comments
Find the
Angry Video Game Nerd a bit obnoxious? Hey Ash, What'cha Playin', AKA HAWP, may be more your speed as far as video game comedy series go. See a pair of siblings (and sometimes their
dad) take on games such as
Trauma Center,
Animal Crossing,
text adventures,
Persona 3, the
best overlooked games,
Professor Layton,
Sleep is Death, and
more.
posted by mccarty.tim
on May 14, 2010 -
58 comments
Are you an older sibling? Did you feel unfairly treated compared to your brothers and sisters? Well, now you have science to back you up. According to
Games Parents and Adolescents Play, a new sociology study published in
The Economic Journal, the oldest kid in the family really does bear the brunt of parental strictness, while the younger brothers and sisters generally coast on through.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on May 5, 2008 -
67 comments
The New "Science" of Siblings An amusing article from Time magazine by Jeffrey Kluger which reports that your siblings have more influece on your personality than any other group-- parents, peers, spouses, children, etc. My ex-wife thinks I'm sarcastic, combative, insensitive, etc. Do I get to blame my brothers and sisters for this now?
Another article on this issue
"The Science of Siblings". Apparently, they could have made me more likely to be gay too.
posted by notmtwain
on Jul 9, 2006 -
28 comments
Only Children have a different set of experiences than those with siblings. This take on a privileged young New Yorker made me reflect on my own only upbringing. On the one hand, it seems intuitively correct that
birth order contributes to life experience, but it actually looks like a pretty
soft science, akin to astrology.
Parenting advice is available, but on a folk wisdom level. Will this subject go away in time, like the old view of left handedness as a sign of potential deviance? What impressions does the girl in the article make?
posted by rainbaby
on Nov 12, 2004 -
30 comments
