Study Says That Only Children Have A More Flexible Mind

The brains of only children are different from those of children who grow up with their siblings, according to an article published in the journal Brain Imaging and Behavior.

This article references a Chinese study that claims that only children have the most developed language area of ​​the brain. But at the same time, the area related to the regulation of emotions is less developed.

A group of researchers at Southwestern University in Chongqing, China surveyed 303 young Chinese people. In total, there were 126 only children and 177 who have siblings. All have undergone tests that measure intelligence, creativity and personality. The scientists also analyzed the shape of the brains of the study participants using images obtained from MRIs.

After analyzing the results, the researchers realized that the brains of only children have an overdeveloped region and an underdeveloped one.

This is mainly due to the fact that the family environments in which individuals grow up affect the development of the brain structure and condition the personality.

Only children are very creative

The researchers found no differences in intelligence quotient (IQ), but concluded that only children have more gray matter in the area of ​​the brain associated with language, flexibility, imagination, and planning.

This is largely due to the attention paid to these children by their fathers and mothers. This would mean that, in a way, the creativity developed by children depends on the expectations and attention provided by the parents.

Likewise, the study shows that the only children analyzed have a frontal cortex smaller than the average. This region of the brain is associated with the regulation of emotions and, therefore, they had worse results in relation to kindness compared to children who have siblings.

Chinese researchers argued that these characteristics could suggest that a lonelier social environment would produce these differences. This is also related to the low levels of empathy recorded on other tests.

Other Aspects of Only Children

In turn, the reason why only daughters and only sons are considered less likeable could be the result of excessive attention from fathers, mothers and the rest of the family. In these cases, girls and boys tend to be less exposed to external social groups and focus more on solitary activities.

According to the published article, this causes them to present “undesirable personality characteristics”, such as dependence, lack of kindness, selfishness and social ineptitude.

“Due to the absence of siblings, only children often miss important opportunities in terms of social relationships. They did not develop psychosocial skills or emotional support skills,” experts say.

It is also worth noting that the aforementioned study drew these conclusions based on a small sample of people. Furthermore, this study was conducted in China and looked exclusively at young people. New variables could emerge in other studies that used, for example, different age groups. Thus, this study also has its limitations and possible distortions.

However, this was the first time that a study looked at the brain structure of only children. In fact, there are past behavior researches that show results close to the conclusions of this Chinese survey.

An analysis of 115 scientific studies conducted in 1986 showed that only-children did better on tests of intelligence, character, and parenting than children who grew up with their siblings.

stubborn personality

Only children are often very stubborn because they are used to pursuing their own interest. And often they can be very possessive. They can also be very strict about privacy and time. Because they are not used to sharing these aspects with anyone.

However, the personality varies according to the child’s living conditions. The upbringing shapes the personality of children in a very strong way.

An article published on the Internet explains that another characteristic of the personality of only children is that they tend to be very mature for their age. This is a characteristic that is due to the environment in which they are created. Because they don’t have siblings, they seek the company of their parents or other adults. And since these people are the only references they have, they tend to compare themselves to them.

Only children love to look like they are much older than they really are. But many of them can end up becoming the typical “know-it-all”.