A Comparative Study Of The Early Development Of Only Children And Non-only Children

China's development is changing from relying on factor to relying on technology and innovation.In this process,the growth of human capital is indispensable.The return rate of human capital investment gradually decreases with age.Therefore,early childhood,especially 0-3 years old is crucial.Generally,children are born with or without siblings is a major indicator to predict the development of children.Both in China and abroad,there are many researches on the gap between only-child and child-with-siblings.Most studies believe that in developing countries where there are few social welfare on children,the development of only-child is generally better than child-with-siblings.And since 1973,China has implemented a gradually stringent family planning policy.Since then,the fertility rate in China has continued to decline.Although in recent years the country has adopted a two-child policy to encourage parents to give birth to two children,but many families choose to only have one child,especially in urban areas.However,in China's impoverished rural areas,many parents still have two or more children,which may increase the differences in the next generation's development between urban and rural.If no suitable measures are taken to increase the development of child-with-siblings in rural areas,inequality of human capital between urban and rural areas may deepen in the future.Using the scientific measurement to identify the real gap between only-child and child-with-sibling in early childhood in poor rural areas then give suitable proposal to narrow it.In order to achieve this goal,in April 2013 and October 2013,1722 infants were randomly selected from 351 villages in 174 towns in 11 poverty-stricken counties in southern Shaanxi.The Bayley Infant Development Scale(BSID)and Age and Stage Questionnaire:Social Emotions(ASQ-SE)are widely used by other researches and have high reliability and reliability,so we use them to measure the infants' cognitive,sports,and social emotional development.And professionally trained Nurses measured infants' hemoglobin concentration by using a rapid hemoglobin analyzer(HemoCue(R)Hb201+)and determined whether they were anemic.Also we use well-designed questionnaires to investigate the basic characteristics,guardian characteristics,and family characteristics of infants.Finally,we use statistical methods to identify the gap of early childhood development between only-child and child-with-siblings,as well as basic characteristics,characteristics of guardians and family characteristics.The results obtained in this study are as follows:(1)In general,the mothers of infants have low education and most of them were educated less than 9 years in poor rural areas.Among them,the mothers' education and family assets of only-child are significantly higher than those of child-with-siblings.(2)The main caregivers of infants in rural areas are generally lack scientific feeding behaviors and parenting behaviors.Most caregivers do not supplement their babies with trace elements,tell stories to their babies,and sing children's songs to their babies.Among them,the only-child's caregivers are more likely to do these things than child-with-siblings' caregiver.(3)All early childhood development of infants in poor rural areas lag behind the average level,and only-child is significantly having a lower rate of anemia,higher cognition and athletic ability than child-with-siblings.And girls born with siblings will suffer from more serious developmental obstacles than boys born with siblings.According to the results of this study,we have some policy suggestions.Poor rural governments should pay attention to the development of infants,provide infants with nutritional supplements,trace elements and regular health care tests and using scientific methods to give parenting training to infants' caregiver so that parents can recognize the importance of early childhood development.The local government should also give special care to child-with-siblings to avoid their development lag behind only-child.The government should also strengthen the promotion and education of gender equality.To make parents realize that girls can also bring spiritual comfort and economic income to the family,so as to avoid the backward development of child-with-siblings girls.