Extreme Cases Of Sibling Rivalry example essay topic

It seems as though our society has placed a negative association with being an only child. Many people consider these children to be at some sort of disadvantage. Research on this subject is mixed on this type of family situation. Therefore, I will cover a range of areas concerning families with one child and families with several children. I have learned a new term associated with being an only child. Although there were exceptions, in most cases if a couple had an only child, something had intervened to prevent them from adding to their family.

Was there something wrong with the child, something wrong in the marriage, or something wrong with the mother or father? In the past, there were many reasons why people felt the need to have more than one child. Some of these reasons were isolation, fear of the spread of disease, the polio scare. Today children are immunized against most childhood diseases and antibiotics are available for less serious illnesses. High mortality rates were also a factor in previous decades. Today we are not faced with the threat that took many young lives, such as smallpox and influenza.

Not to long ago, people had children for economic gain. They used the extra bodies to harvest the crops and milk the cows. Today there is no economic advantage to having a larger family. More parents are choosing to have only one child due to changing family patterns and economic concerns.

New roles for women have also contributed to parents choosing the option of having only one child. Parents can gain many advantages from choosing to have only one child. There is reduced conflict in dividing time and attention among children, greater financial flexibility, and an even more closely-knit family unit. There is little to justify all the accusations that only children are mentally unbalanced, spoiled, lonely, or shy. The reality is that an only child could develop any of the often-attributed stereotypical personality traits, but so could an oldest, youngest, or middle child.

All these social stereotypes exist without any grounding in reality. Unfortunately, simply because they exist, some people continue to believe them. By all current accounts, it seems as though past attitudes and current stereotyping is erroneous. With the reality clear, let us now focus on differences of only children and children who have siblings.

The results of investigations represent some differences between only children and children who have siblings. The results I will focus on are in the areas of intelligence, achievement, affiliation, popularity, and self-esteem. Although report findings conflict, only children, like first-born, generally have been found to score slightly higher on measures of intelligence than younger siblings. The results of the testing may be explained by factors within the family. Such factors for example may be the parents providing an enriched intellectual environment. As in intelligence, achievement (both academic and other kinds) in only and first-born children appears to be slightly greater than for later-born children.

In an attempt to explain, theorists have considered the relationship between parents and children. Presumably, achievement motivation originates in the high standards for mature behavior that parents impose on their only and first-born children. There can be other negative effects in families with several children. I do not believe that it is wrong to have two or more children.

It is great; however, from the moment a new baby enters the home, many changes occur. The time and attention of parents that was previously devoted to the older sibling is now halved and the older sibling may feel he or she needs to get that attention back. From these feeling, sibling rivalry is rooted. Depending on the severity and longevity of the rivalry between siblings, sibling rivalry could have long-term psychological effects.

Extreme cases of sibling rivalry that occur in nature are those between shark siblings and between eagle siblings. In the case of the baby shark, the largest shark in the mothers womb eats the other sharks to make sure the largest shark receives all of the food resources. In the case of the eagles, the eaglet that hatches first pushes the other eaglets out of the nest as soon as they hatch to ensure that the food that is brought back the first-born receives. Although the story of Cain and Able was an extreme case, sibling rivalry occurs in every home where multiple children live. In my own experiences in observing sibling rivalry, I have found that children have multiple ways of showing the rivalry between them. For some older children it could be through grades in school, either by competition as to who can do better or by sabotaging the other sibling by hiding books, homework, or backpacks.

Parents usually praise children for the positive work that they are doing in class, and children love the attention that they get when they do something good. On the other hand, siblings could fight for their parents attention by doing bad things such as getting in trouble at school by acting up or disobeying the teacher or the rules. This child would get the parents time and attention because they are doing badly. Sibling rivalry also occurs in the form of fighting between the children, or fighting with the parents. In closing, it seems that only children may have some advantages because of their special status. They seem to receive more attention from parents, freedom from sibling rivalry and comparison, and access to more family resources.

They have the advantage of being the oldest and the youngest child in the family. Research has indicated that there are no significant differences between adult only children and adults with siblings in social behaviors from simple interaction skills to civic involvement. For this reason, the stereotype of the only child may lose credibility. With all this stated, the truth is, there is no ideal family, just what is right for you. There are pros and cons of being single child.