School performance, peer association, psychological and behavioral adjustments: A comparison between Chinese adolescents with and without siblings

We test theoretically informed hypotheses using survey reports of adolescents attending three middle schools in the outskirts of Fuzhou, Fujian, China. Results yielded by regression analyses are quite consistent with the hypothesized relationships, that is, Chinese singleton adolescents are more likely to anticipate going to college than non-singleton adolescents. Further, singletons are more associated with conventional peers and they report better adjustments both psychologically and behaviorally than non-singleton adolescents. Singletons and non-singletons, however, are not different in their self-reported performance in four school subjects, namely, Chinese, Math, English, and Political Studies. These results are discussed in light of the theoretical literature, especially related to attachment theory, resource dilution theory as well as confluence model.