Study Finds Children From Large Families Are More Likely To Have Behavioral Problems And Poor Cognitive Achievement

Society sees large families as a status symbol that can capture the attention of the public. However, a recent study published by the National Bureau of Economics Research shows that children from large families are more likely to experience behavioral and other related problems. There are also cases where children would also have poor performance on cognitive tests. 

"Families face substantial quantity-quality trade-off: increase in family size, decrease parental investment, decrease childhood performance on cognitive tests and measures of social behaviors," the researchers wrote. "Importantly, we find that these negative effects are not merely temporary disruptions following a birth but, in fact, persist throughout childhood."

Science Daily reported that the research is based on data gathered after children attain adulthood. The researchers use up a dataset that monitored the results during the childhood. They also evaluated the results of the older children before and after a younger brother or sister was born.

Their findings show that each child added in the family reduces "parental investment." These include affection, the time spent with children, security of the environment and other resources such as material goods, books and money.

"Parental investments may matter more in the U.S. where a substantial fraction of young men and women, particularly from lower income backgrounds, are at risk of not finishing high school," they wrote.

"If you are in a well-resourced family, some of these things don't apply," Chinhui Juhn, one of the authors of the research, said. "When the second child comes along, there is less time and attention. But in an environment with more resources, it's not as binding."

On the other hand, the National Post shared that large families have advantages for the children. These include health, economic advantages and development. According to the study, having extra brother or sister, a child will be, 14 percent less obese on the average. And having siblings will have sharper emotional intelligence, clearer soft skills and more language skills than a child without a brother or a sister.