THE stigma attached to only children 鈥� that they have weaker social skills 鈥� is unwarranted. So say and of Ohio State University, Columbus, who found that kids with siblings make no more friends than those without.
Concerns about poor social skills among children raised alone stem in part from a paper Downey published in 2004, which asked kindergarten teachers in the US to rate the social skills of children, aged around 5, in their care. He found that .
But the difference appears to disappear as children age. He and Bobbit-Zeher analysed a survey of 13,500 children from 100 schools around the US. One section required students to name up to 10 friends. Pupils were typically named by five other children, regardless of whether they had siblings or not. Bobbitt-Zeher presented the results this week at the in Georgia.
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鈥淥nly children move up quickly in their professions,鈥� says of the University of Texas at Arlington. 鈥淚t鈥檚 unlikely they would do that if they didn鈥檛 interact well with peers.鈥�
