A recent study from America has found a link between the number of siblings a person has and the risk of their marriage ending in divorce.
“The practical difference between having no siblings and having one or two isn’t that much in terms of divorce,” said Doug Downey, co-author of the study and professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.
“But when you compare children from large families to those with only one child, there is a meaningful gap in the probability of divorce,” he added.
Surprisingly, researchers found that it wasn’t the difference between being an only child and having siblings that was significant.
“We expected that if you had any siblings at all, that would give you the experience with personal relationships that would help you in marriage,” said Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, co-author of the study and assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State’s Marion campus.
“But we found that the real story appears to be how family dynamics change incrementally with the addition of each sibling. More siblings means more experience dealing with others, and that seems to provide additional help in dealing with a marriage relationship as an adult.”
The study found that the protective effect of additional siblings increased up to about seven. Additional siblings over and above this didn’t seem to provide any additional protection, but equally didn’t detract at all from the positive effects.
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