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This article is about the birth order. For the musician, see Only Child (musician).

Main article: Birth order

An only child is a child with no siblings, either biological or adopted. First-born children are temporarily only children and thus have a similar early family environment. The influence of being an only child is controversial, but a considerable amount of theory exists on the subject. G. Stanley Hall, known as the founder of child psychology, called being an only child "a disease in itself."

Alfred Adler (1870-1937), an Austrian psychiatrist and a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, included birth order dynamics in his theory of personality formation. He suggested that birth order can leave an indelible impression on an individual's style of life - that is, the individual's habitual way of dealing with the tasks of friendship, love, and work. Other factors that may be equally influential are parental attitudes, organ inferiority, illness and disability, gender roles, and social circumstances. Adler believed that because only children have no rivals for their parents' affection, they may be pampered and spoiled by their parents, particularly the mother. He suggested that this could cause later interpersonal difficulties if the person is not universally liked and admired.^[1]

A 1987 quantitative review of 141 studies on 16 different personality traits contradicted Adler's theory by finding no evidence of any maladjustment in only children. The primary finding was that only children are not very different from children with siblings. The main exception to this was the finding that only children are higher in achievement motivation.^[2] A second analysis revealed that only children, first-borns, and children with only one sibling score higher on tests of verbal ability than later-borns and children with multiple siblings.^[3]

The advantage of only children in test scores and achievement motivation may be due to the greater amount of parental attention they receive. According the Resource Dilution Model, parental resources (e.g. time to read to the child) are important in development. Because these resources are finite, children with many siblings receive fewer resources.^[4]

Contemporary personality theorists generally agree that the "big five personality traits" (also known as Five Factor Model) represent a natural taxonomy of human personality variables. Across different languages, the vast majority of adjectives used to describe human personality fit into one of the following five areas, easily remembered by the acronym OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Factor analyses of personality tests also tend to cluster around these five factors.

In his book Born to Rebel, Frank Sulloway provides evidence that birth order influences the development of Big Five personality traits. Sulloway suggests that firstborns and only children are more conscientious, more socially dominant, less agreeable, and less open to new ideas compared to laterborns.^[5] However, his conclusions have been challenged by other researchers,^[6] who argue that birth order effects are weak and inconsistent. In one of the largest studies conducted on the effect of birth order on the Big Five, data from a national sample of 9,664 subjects found no association between birth order and scores on the NEO PI-R personality test.^[7]

This list includes people who have only step-siblings but not those who have half-siblings.

• William Randolph Hearst, U.S. newspaper publisher, politician
• Robin Williams, actor and comedian
• Laura Bush, current First Lady of the United States
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, American basketball player
• Lauren Bacall, American film and stage actress
• Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
• Robert De Niro, American actor
• Elton John, English singer and actor
• Leonardo DiCaprio, American actor
• Rudy Giuliani, American politician
• Tipper Gore, former second Lady of the United States
• Alan Greenspan, American economist
• Jean Harlow, American actress
• Lillian Hellman, American playwright
• Beth Howland, American actress
• Samuel L. Jackson, American actor
• Vivien Leigh, English actress
• Tara Lipinski, American figure skater
• Aled Jones, Welsh/British singer/presenter
• Neil Kinnock, Welsh/British politician
• Bob Knight, American basketball coach
• J. C. R. Licklider, computer scientist, 'father' of the internet
• Shirley Mason, American painter and psychiatric patient
• Clark Gable, U.S. actor
• Marilyn Manson, American singer/songwriter/musician
• Joe Montana, American football player
• Haruki Murakami, Japanese author/novelist
• Jerry Orbach, American actor
• Alice Pearce, American actress/comedienne
• Terry Pratchett, British best-seller author
• Cole Porter, American composer and songwriter
• Natalie Portman, Israeli-American actress
• LeAnn Rimes, American singer
• Fred Rogers, American television host, also known as Mr. Rogers
• Cynthia Rothrock, American actress/martial arts expert
• Arthur Scargill, British trade unionist
• Jill Scott, American singer
• Gene Simmons, American singer/songwriter/musician
• Frank Sinatra, American singer/actor
• Oliver Stone, American filmmaker
• Ramond Teller, American magician
• Bobby Vinton, American singer/songwriter/musician
• Betty White, American actress
• Alexei Yagudin, Russian figure skater
• "Weird Al" Yankovic, American singer/musician/parodist
• Alex Turner, English musician (Arctic Monkeys)

This list includes fictional characters who appear in a variety of media. To be included, sufficent evidence must exist about a characters family to remove suggestions that they have siblings. Portrayl and story-lines are considered to determine if the character is an only child or has been raised as an only child.

• Hermes Conrad and Dwight Conrad, Although never portrayed as an only child, there is never any mention of Hermes having any siblings. Dwight, is portrayed as an only child of Hermes and his wife LaBarbara.
• Dudley Dursley, The only child of Vernon and Petunia Dursley, despite the Dursleys taking in Harry Potter, the two boys are antagonistic.
• Cubert Farnsworth, A clone of Hubert J. Farnsworth, it could be argued that they are siblings, but in the story-line, Cubert is cloned to be the heir and successor to Hubert.
• Hubert J. Farnsworth, Despite being a main character in Futurama, the only mention of Farnsworth's family is that he is a newphew and descendant of Fry, and of his clone, Cubert.
• Hermione Jean Granger, The daughter of two dentists, although never portrayed as an only child, there is no mention of any siblings.
• Turanga Leela, The daughter of two mutants, who gave her up for adoption at birth.
• Neville Longbottom, The son of Frank and Alice Longbottom, but raised by his grandmother. Although never portrayed as an only child, there is no mention of any siblings.
• Nelson Muntz, Lives with his mother after his father walked out, in one episode he reunites with both parents. No siblings are ever mentioned.
• Harry Potter, the only child of James and Lilly Potter, who were killed when Harry was an infant. Harry was taken in by his aunt and uncle, but has never been accepted as a brother to their son Dudley.
• Homer Simpson, Despite having a half-brother and a half-sister, Homer is raised as an only child.
• Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten, the only child of parents with an over-dysfunctional marriage.
• Ralph Wiggum, The only child of Police Chief Clancy and Sarah Wiggum
• Amy Wong, The only child of wealthy parents, who frequently suggest she should provide them with grandchildren.

1. ^ Adler, A. (1964). Problems of neurosis. New York: Harper and Row.
2. ^ Polit, D. F. & Falbo, T. (1987) Only children and personality development: A quantitative review. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 49, 309-325.
3. ^ Polit, D. F. & Falbo, T. (1988). The intellectual achievement of only children. Journal of Biosocial Science, 20, 275-285.
4. ^ Downey, D.B. (2001). Number of siblings and intellectual development: The resource dilution explanation. American Psychologist, 56, 497-504.
5. ^ Sulloway, F.J. (1996). Born to rebel: Birth order, family dynamics and creative lives. New York: Pantheon Books.
6. ^ Harris, J. R. (2006). No two alike: Human nature and human individuality. WW Norton & Company.
7. ^ Jefferson, T., Herbst, J. H., & McCrae, R. R. (1998). Associations between birth order and personality traits: Evidence from self-reports and observer ratings. Journal of Research in Personality, 32, 498-509.

• Birth order and intelligence
• No Little Emperors a blog written by, for, and about parents of only children