Effects of China's One Child Policy On Its Children
New research shows China's controversial One Child Policy
(OCP) has not only dramatically re-shaped the population, but has produced
individuals lacking characteristics important for economic and social
attainment.
In research published January 10 in Science, Professors
Lisa Cameron and Lata Gangadharan from Monash University, Professor Xin Meng
from the Australian National University (ANU) and Associate Professor Nisvan
Erkal from the University of Melbourne examined cohorts of children born just
before and after the OCP was introduced. They assessed social and competitive
behavioural attributes such as trust and risk-taking.
The researchers conducted a series of economic games on
more than 400 subjects. The imposition of the OCP allowed them to identify
individuals who grew up as an only child because of the policy and who would
have grown up with siblings in the absence of the OCP.
Comparing this group with those who were born before the
OCP, they isolated the causal impact of growing up as single children. Results
indicated that individuals who grew up as single children as a result of
China's OCP were significantly less trusting, less trustworthy, more
risk-averse, less competitive, more pessimistic, and less conscientious
individuals.
Professor Cameron, of the Monash Centre for Development
Economics, said effects were observed even if single children had significant
contact with social peers.
"We found that greater exposure to other children in
childhood -- for example, frequent interactions with cousins and/or attending
childcare -- was not a substitute for having siblings. There is some evidence
that parents can influence their children's behavior by encouraging pro-social
values," Professor Cameron said.
The researchers considered a number of possible other
factors such as participants' age and whether they might have become more
capitalistic over time. They found that being born before or after the
introduction of the OCP best explained the results.
The research may also have economic implications.
"Our data show that people born under the One Child
Policy were less likely to be in more risky occupations like self-employment.
Thus there may be implications for China in terms of a decline in
entrepreneurial ability," Professor Cameron said.
A radical tool of population control, the OCP was
introduced in 1979 and strictly enforced in urban centres using economic
incentives. In 2011 an official Chinese outlet cited the numbers of births
prevented at 400 million.
Reports indicate that the Chinese government is currently
considering whether to relax the OCP and these findings are relevant to those
deliberations.
Source: Sciencedaily
Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1118452
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