Comprehensive questionnaires completed by 2,500 young people in a study conducted by Gundi Knies from the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex it was found that only kids are happier than those who have siblings.
We may think that the only child is a lonely child, but according to the kids surveyed, there are many advantages to being an only child:
- When there are other siblings, there is competition for limited resources. Items such as toys, sweets, and other goodies and even space are required to be shared when there are brothers and/or sisters around. There is no such requirement for sharing when one is a single child.
- A child with siblings also has to compete for attention and time from parents. For only children there is no such competing required.
- Sibling bullying is another aspect of growing up with brothers and sisters that a single child does not have to contend with. Being called names, having their things taken away from them, and other bullying tactics have to be dealt with when you have siblings, but not when you are a single child.
- Quarreling siblings also increase parental stress.
