April 12, 2023 – Only Children

Happy National Only Child Day! Mark and I are both only children, and today roughly 20% to 30% of American families have one child. It was relatively uncommon throughout history. In 1960, the average family had 4 children, today 2 is typical. For years, there’s been a long-held belief about “only child syndrome” – basically that they’re spoiled brats, and antisocial with poorly developed social skills. We have a child psychologist named E.W. Bohannon to thank for this completely untrue stereotype. He published a study in the 19th century called “A Study of Peculiar and Exceptional Children”, which detailed the results of a questionnaire that had been filled out by 200 test subjects. The questionnaire asked respondents about the peculiarities of any only children they knew, and in 196 cases, participants said only children were excessively spoiled. However, 21st century research has shown that this is complete nonsense. Time and time again studies have shown that characteristics of only children and children with siblings don’t differ much at all. The biggest finding has been that only children have stronger relationships with their parents. Many also think that only children have more imaginary friends, since they’re alone much of the time. But research shows that around 65% of all children actually have make-believe friendships. There are a lot of famous only children, including Frank Sinatra, Robin Williams, Tiger Woods, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Learn more here.