The Effect of Older Siblings on Language Development as a Function of Age Difference and Sex

作者：Naomi Havron, Franck Ramus, Barbara Heude, Anne Forhan, Alejandrina Cristià, Hugo Peyre, the EDEN Mother-Child Cohort Study Group, I. Annesi‐Maesano, Jonathan Yoan Bernard, Jérémie Botton, Marie-Aline A Charles, Patricia Dargent‐Molina, Blandine de Lauzon‐Guillain, Pierre Ducimetière, Maria De Agostini, B. Foliguet, Anne Forhan, Xavier Fritel, Alice Germa, V. Goua, Régis G Hankard, Barbara Heude, M. Kaminski, Béatrice Larroque, N. Lelong, Johanna Lepeule, George E. Magnin, L. Marchand, Cathy Nabet, F. Pierre, Rémy Slama, Marie‐Josèphe Saurel‐Cubizolles, M. Schweitzer, Olivier Thiébaugeorges · 发表于：Psychological Science · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.1177/0956797619861436 · 被引用次数：63 · 研究领域：Language Development and Disorders、Child and Animal Learning Development、Reading and Literacy Development

The number of older siblings a child has is negatively correlated with the child’s verbal skills, perhaps because of competition for parents’ attention. In the current study, we examined the role of siblings’ sex and age gap as moderating factors, reasoning that they affect older siblings’ tendency to compensate for reduced parental attention. We hypothesized that children with an older sister have better language abilities than children with an older brother, especially when there is a large age gap between the two siblings. We reanalyzed data from the EDEN cohort ( N = 1,154) and found that children with an older sister had better language skills than those with an older brother. Contrary to predictions, results showed that the age gap between siblings was not associated with language skills and did not interact with sex. Results suggest that the negative effect of older siblings on language development may be entirely due to the role of older brothers. Our findings invite further research on the mechanisms involved in this effect.